8/8/2019 A Truthful Message to the Judges of Vision Quest by Aaron Ostrander

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A Truthful Message to the Judges of Vision QuestBy: Aaron Ostrander, Class of 2009

This is the letter to the judges that I wanted to include in my Vision Quest portfolio; for certain reasons I was not allowed to do so.

In the next few minutes I shall be walking into the room where you, the judges, are

currently looking at my board and this portfolio. I am going to walk in formally dressed witha smile on my face and a prepared speech that is supposed to impress you and make you

think that I am a fine young gentleman. I regret to inform you that the way that I will appear is but a façade that we seniors are forced to put on in order to sell ourselves like cheap

whores for a good grade on a nearly valueless project. We are motivated to do so by the fact

that our very graduation hinges on this abandonment of honesty and bastardization of dignity.

But alas, I will still walk into that room dressed formally with a forced smile and use all of the rhetoric I’ve developed over the years to woo you into giving me a good grade, but I will

 be able to sleep more soundly this night knowing that you are conscious of the fact that it is but a petty mask put on by a student who could have just as easily kept his intentions and true

thoughts concealed. For that is what every single reflection you just read was, a bluff that I

 put up because I was told to behave and be a good little boy that followed the rules and actedto appease those so-called “superiors.”

I think that it would be redundant to say that I did not enjoy Vision Quest; it left quite

a sour taste in my mouth. The project’s intent, to stimulate intellectually the too oftunstimulated mind, is not a bad one. But in my own case this project proved more of an

intellectual hindrance than an aid. I am one of those students that is so hard to find in a highschool; I am one of those few that studies independently of his school work. Now you might

think that Vision Quest would go right along with this and would fit in perfectly with my

already established agenda, but it did not. Vision Quest staggered my intellectual pursuits by

forcing me to slow myself down and do everything in the form of a rigorously laid out school project. It acted like one of the slave masters of old, cracking me across the back with its

whip of stipulations interwoven with forms and requirements and regulations. It forced me togo out of my way and take time away from my own pursuits in order to pursue the

completion of things so insulting to my intelligence and the intelligence of any high schoolstudent that a sensible teacher would never conceive of placing the burden of the completion

of such tasks on any student of high school caliber.

Indeed, Vision Quest did not inspire or stimulate me, as I am sure its originators had

hoped it would do for everyone. No, instead it uncomfortably restrained me and placedunnecessary stress on an already stressed individual. This year I am taking several Advanced

Placement classes, and on top of my responsibility to the instructors of those courses and myapplications to colleges in preparation for the coming year I have been robbed of my free

time by a thief masquerading as a means of allowing students to creatively express

themselves. Indeed, if students were to shamelessly voice their opinions about Vision Quest

one would find that the general consensus is that the project is a waste and an inducer of uncalled for stress. Yet this is not what one hears; what one hears in place of cries of dissent

is the little pitter-patter of feet walking in unison to the beat of the drum that praises VisionQuest for its alleged merits. And that, my friends, is a most disgusting sound. Sadly, I am

forced to fall in step with this army of automatons, because if I don’t then I won’t receive that piece of paper that is supposed to signify that I have developed intellectually over the past

four years. It’s funny how that works.