By GREG RUSSELL, Register Staff Writer
Gainesville Daily Register
Valley View —
Valley View High School Class of 2011 valedictorian Lindsey White said she was a highly shy freshman but soon found a cure.
“I got involved in extracurricular events that helped me get out of my shell a little bit,” she said. “I met new people.”
And her advice to younger students, especially incoming freshmen, is to try the same.
“Get involved,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to get involved because once you get involved, it’s not so bad.”
White and salutatorian Rebekah Davidson have already firmed some of their future plans — and discussed them Tuesday while citing lessons learned in the past four years and worth passing forward.
Davidson, who plans to major in biomedical science at Texas A&M University in College Station and become a veterinary technician, said math and science came easiest.
With grades, she said, all that can be done is all there is to be done. She said she studied when she could, took her time with school work and just generally did her best.
“Sometimes it’s harder for some people,” Davidson said. “But as long as you’re doing your best, it’s enough.”
And like valedictorian White, Davidson got better by getting involved.
“I know that through being in activities and sports I’ve learned a lot just about life,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of friends, which has been really good. And it’s a lot easier to get through high school when you have people to lean on and talk to.”
White, whose graduating grade point average is 3.9-plus, said she’s weighing Texas Tech and Ohio State universities. “I’m leaning toward Ohio but it would make more sense to go to Tech,” she said. “I’d like to double major in chemistry and physics but at the very least, I’d like to major in chemistry and minor in physics.”
Her long-term future goals involve environmental outreach, working to help heal the oceans and their burgeoning plastic content. But in looking back, White said her best high school results have come from having goals and completing them without shortcuts.
Any advice to younger students would include that point.
“I think I would tell them just to not blow it off even if they don’t want to do it,” White said. “Just get it done. And that way you have free time to do anything else you want. Because when you procrastinate, everything builds up in the end and you don’t have the free time to do what you want. And your grades go down and everything’s a mess.”
But no student, in any high school, can marvel in everything. Davidson said she feels a person can always develop a love of learning. But she admitted this doesn’t mean the person will enjoy every subject there is to learn.
“Some things you’re just not going to like and some things you’re going to like,” she said. “You’ve just got to find what suits you and go after that. And learn all that you can.”
