Hello, Paint Branch. It’s that time of year again: AP exams are over, students attend school only in the physical sense, and the sun of summer vacation is peeking over the horizon. Ultimately, this time of year symbolizes change. Another summer, another senior class trying to look adulthood defiantly in the eyes and insist that they’re not the least bit nervous about moving out, not at all worried about their finances (or lack thereof). At the beginning of a new chapter in one’s life, the best course of action is to embrace the experience with open arms, but retrospection is also a healthy practice.

Graduation is a hallowed celebration, and with good reason. For most, it represents the end of more than a decade of institutionalized learning, as well as the end of almost two decades of parental dependence. For me, it represents an opportunity to look back on the growth and maturation that all of the class of 2007 has undergone – both scholastic and personal. And so it was the day I began to contemplate my senior ‘Zine that I was prodded into some retrospection of my own. In order to facilitate the flashback, seniors were handed their ninth-grade portfolios, which included the legendary I-Search research paper. My I-Search question: “Are Psychics Real?”

I thank my freshman English teacher Ms. Greene for not laughing in my face.

I pride myself on not having been one of those ninth-graders to assemble my friends and clog the hallways like stringy bundles of hair down an already too-narrow drain. Nor was I the freshman who blithely toted animé and trading cards. Still, I was in at least one way like every freshman: I had a lot of learning to do. However, while it may seem that my I-Search was a waste of time, energy – both mental and electric – and paper, looking back I did indeed learn something about humankind and the “supernatural abilities” that we all possess.

Telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis may sound like the plot elements of a Harry Potter novel, but these talents may be neither as mystical nor as fictional as you may think. Reading someone’s mind, spotting a liar or taking the guesswork out of a relationship are things we’d all love to be capable of at one time or another, but to be in- tune with another person’s thoughts and be empathically connected to another person is a beautiful thing that’s far too rare in this world. Sensing occurrences miles away would be an incredible feat, but the gifted writers, painters, and cinematographers who masterfully capture the sensations and emotions of their surroundings can transport you to another place entirely. Moving objects with your mind would drop the jaw of the most seasoned magician, but with the powers of reason, legends like Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. halted armies with their words. Miraculous minds like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein thrust humanity’s scientific development forward with their discoveries.

We all have heroic qualities waiting to be illuminated and, not unlike the larger-than-life characters in comics and novels, we all have our weaknesses. Superman succumbed to kryptonite, and every human has an equally potent vice. There is only one thing in this world capable of halting the revolutionary capacity we all carry, and it is hate.

Hatred is the only destructive force capable of obliterating the revolutionary potential we all carry and reversing the revolutionary actions of those who came before us. Gandhi and Dr. King may have saved the lives of countless millions from the inhumanity of others, but their own lives were taken by people who couldn’t face the change that threatened their systems of injustice. Franklin and Einstein both harnessed energies with infinite potential, but these forces have since been used for devastating wartime agendas.

Unfortunately, there may always be people on this Earth who cannot accept the diverse and innovative ways of thinking that help the ordinary person to become extraordinary and refuse to allow humankind to progress, grow, and change. I only want you to know that you don’t have to be one of them.

And you can quote me on that.