When I was eleven, I waited months for my Hogwarts acceptance letter. How I longed to escape the drudgery of school with the same old classes, teachers and students. I have since accepted Dumbledore is not ready for me, but too many mornings I still feel the same reluctance to attend school, and see it creep into too many places. 

Unconstructive negativity about our school does not have a place on campus. Even if it is finals week and reasons for positivity are harder to identify, we should respect those who do bring an enthusiastic attitude to school.

Whenever I visit the “Hot” tab on my Yik Yak home page, I can expect to see at least one complaint about school trending. Typing “school is” in Google prompts the phrases “for fools,” “pointless,” and “not for me.” Bonding with fellow students is so much easier when we can complain about what we don’t like about school.

Sooner rather than later, we must face the harsh reality that no half-giants on flying motorcycles are going to whisk us away to an enchanted castle. Spreading negativity about school, a place we have no choice but to attend, is unproductive, unenjoyable and unnecessary.

Of course, anyone would agree that our school is far from perfect. Students have indeed made some of the most influential suggestions for school improvement, which cannot be formulated by only focusing on the positive elements of school. Examples of such student feedback include student members in Site Council, a group that aims to create a Single Plan for Student Achievement, focus groups used to help determine this year’s new bell schedule and voting for ASB officers.

Having passions for other activities is also splendid — our lives should never consist only of schoolwork, and celebrating Fridays is not a sin either.

However, no student should interpret an unenjoyable encounter with an teacher, class, schoolmate or any other school experience as a reason to give up.

My experience at Camp Everytown this summer showed me the power that positivity has. I attended this program with 60 other students and teachers from this school, and I consider it one of the most pivotal points in my entire 11-year school development.

Neither activities inspired by the most cutting-edge research nor counselors with the most name-brand credentials allowed Camp Everytown to influence me so profoundly. Rather, everyone there willingly chose to go and wanted to listen to each other to better their school climate even though no one from our school had gone before: that is what made the experience so special.

Not only do students bemoan school too often, but too many of its perpetrators also expect others to act the same way. Our culture traditionally has labeled those who enjoy their classes excessively as unattractive and antisocial; even intelligent and studious Hermione is not spared ridicule at Hogwarts. At our school, I have seen this poisonous attitude manifest itself in coldly rude treatment of speakers during assemblies and classmates rolling their eyes at other classmates for raising their hand one too many times.

If paying fellow humans the respect that they deserve for simply using the resources available to them does not sound appealing enough, realize that school takes up at least one-third of every weekday for 10 months, or around 1400 hours, every year.

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, has conducted research that shows 75% of job success depends on “optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way.” Basically, more positivity for school means more productivity and happiness for nearly one-third of your life.

We cannot afford to blame those who do choose to make the most of their time at school or to see a breezeway full of potential friends instead of meaningless and antagonistic bodies between classes.

The worst case scenario is that everyone is a little less unhappy.

The best case scenario would be if everyone could share the magic I was lucky enough to feel at Camp Everytown. Perhaps one day, Hogwarts students would even be dying to come to us. Call me a dreamer, but as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore said, “It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”