Big Fish Research Paper

Big Fish Little Fish, sounds simple enough, like the title of a Dr. Seuss book. It’s fitting to round off one’s high school career, as well as a metaphor to the talented author. After all, it was through his clever rhymes and colorful illustrations that most of us first learned to read.
As seniors at Mahwah High School, big fish in a little pond, little fish in a big pond describes us perfectly. We all start as small fish placed in the bigger pond of life. Over time, we grow with our surroundings; the place that we live and the people we know shape who we become. Coming from a small school in a close-knit community, we’ve grown to love our little pond. There is a special comfort in familiarity—a security in the ability to call our classmates
by name and walk around school without getting lost. For many of us, our sense of value and identity depends on this community.
As a triplet, I’ve grown up with my brother and sister always by my side.
Being a triplet is all I’ve ever known, and it’s a large part of how I identify with the world. As the oldest, my personal choices and sense of responsibility have always been intertwined with my two younger siblings. They are my best friends, my confidants, and at times even my classmates.
I’ve always been part of a “we,” but this next chapter in life I will be on my own. My high school classmates have all been asking me, “Aren’t you guys going to miss each other?” I tell them, “Of course,” but it’s much more than that. It’s the very first challenge I will face alone. It’s the very first time I will start out in a new place simply as me, and not one of three. I am equally excited by and scared of this challenge. I’m going from a school of 1,000 students who I grew up with to a school of 5,000 strangers.
The transition from high school to college presents us all with many new challenges. The workload may feel overwhelming and the surroundings will be unfamiliar. We will have to take on the responsibility of managing life on our own. But the biggest challenge will be learning to embrace the unfamiliar, all the while searching for that small space we can comfortably inhabit. I don’t think our challenge is learning to live as a little fish in a big pond, but rather finding our small pond within the
big.
A goldfish in a fishbowl may grow a few inches, but put it in a big pond and it can grow a foot. My hope for not only myself, but for all of my graduating class is to accept the challenge of this next phase, to be confident and allow ourselves to grow into our surroundings, and most of all to thrive and enjoy the journey. Like Dr. Seuss said, “We have brains in our heads, we have feet in our shoes, we can steer ourselves any direction we choose… and oh, the places we’ll go.”