By Alex Irizarry
Staff Writer
People are everywhere and momentarily the bodies packed into the main hall block my field of vision. Constantly zigzagging and cramming my way through the muddles of teens talking in large, but compact, groups. And then just like that it is quiet and empty; and quite suddenly, I am alone. It is in these moments, where all the confusion dies down, and I am left to my own devices, that one can truly capture the beauty of the school and our town.
Coppell is, in many ways, the definition of a small town in Texas. A close knit community and an almost rabid love of football. We have the backyard barbeques almost daily and the big community events on holidays. But we differ from other small towns primarily in our need to grow more into the 21st century. To be the innovators of the ‘next big thing’, to make people recognize Coppell as having more than just a great school district and a back-to-back state championship winning Cowgirl Volleyball team. To leave a mark on the world.
Everyone want to be remembered, myself included. So I can understand why this generation of people is trying so hard through new buildings, franchises, and especially technology, to be recognized. However it’s costing us what I love about this town, I love Old Town Coppell, I love to drive past and see the old barber shop or the farmer’s market. I love to write my stories on paper, as I do so frequently. It’s these small things that can bring my mind back to simpler times, which is why I’m proud to live here. It’s not because we’re the most advanced, or dominating in sports, but because in those moments, rare as they may be, where everything calms down I can just be. I don’t have to be anyone except who I want to be in that moment, and that makes this place shine above anywhere else.
This school is not great because we have loads of technology, be it the Macs or our shiny new iPads. No it’s great because we’re pushed to do our best, we’re pushed to try something new – something that may scare us, every single day. And we may choose to fail, and choose to wallow in our failures, or we can choose to succeed. We have that choice. And in Coppell High School that is what pushes us above the rest, our ability as students to make our own decisions with our learning. To succeed on our own, not because we were forced to, but because we choose to.
I chose to be a part of the Sidekick because it allows me to leave a piece of myself behind here when I graduate through my stories. In writing I can say things I might not get the chance to in my life, I can show readers how great we are without the technology. That’s my own mark on the world. To have been here and had the chance to tell these great people a story, and have to them remember it, is more of a legacy than I could ever hope for.
When all is said and done, for me being in Coppell has nothing to do with innovation or popularity, it’s about the moments I had these past 7 years and the friends and family by my side throughout the good and bad. Coppell, or at least my Coppell, exists in the moments I’m with the people I love. It’s in the quiet moments, though, that I can smell the barbecues cooking outside, when I can hear the breeze whistling past me, when I can finally see the beauty we can never find inside a screen.
