Just keep swimming

Hello guys!
Back for another year! The fourth year, but this year is a lot different. Over the past four years, I haven't changed too much. There are some new achievements on the board however! I graduated from Boston Latin School, and will be attending UMass Amherst next year. After a successful basketball season, and a lovely spring coming, everything was taken away.

For the intro blog, I decided to take a different approach. A lot of my minor details like me being a gamer and athlete, and being a native from Boston can be found in my other blogs. This year has been really hard.

Being a senior going to BLS, high school was no easy ride. It was hard for me to acheive success and good grades. I was always looked down on as one of the lower performing kids in absolutely every aspect of life. I was not one that was easily accepted, or taken seriously in a professional environment. Once I started to change my view on life, and accept the reality rushing in front of me, I decided to prepare myself. Senior year was my year to prove myself. After a very strong finish to my junior year, I set a standard for myself: chill with my true friends, and make my parents proud. I started in the summer of 2019.

Going into Save the Harbor 2019, I aimed to change the way I approached, work, people, everything. I started to be more open to people, and was able to find a peace to work, no matter what I was doing. I used to complain a lot, but decided to accept my role where I am, and work for who I want to be. That vision allowed me to win Harbor Hero that summer.

I was on a roll, and was ready for senior year. I grinded all my classes, and pushed through the final basketball season which was a very emotional ride since I was down with a fever for about a month. Despite basketball being in the way, and my health not cooperating, I did not forget about college and school and kept going. But then, a pandemic ruined it all.

I won't be able to see so many faces that I just smiled at. People who I always wanted to speak to, people that loved me, people I loved. There was no senior prom. No senior graduation. No senior week. No celebration. Just a diploma.

To hold what was the tangible representation of my success through the last four years, things still did not feel good. However, seeing a smile on my mother's face was the most satisfying moment of all. Save the Harbor allowed me to realize the minor things. What it means to make a kid smile when he catches his first fish. The small conversations that teach kids life lessons. Hanging out with my All Access crew for the summer, and annoying my bosses Bridget and Kristen.

This summer, despite the pandemic, and all the circumstances not allowing for another summer of programming, I will keep going. I will work to provide educational content, and marine science based lessons for kids in the Greater Boston Area. That is my position here at Save the Harbor: to keep going.

See ya next time :),
Qalid Hassan.

we back fellas