Lucas Haviland: “Through its imperfections, Waukee has reestablished its excellence.”

The Waukee school district has always had an atmosphere of excellence. This year alone, the boys’ swim team won a state title, the Waukee Warrior Regiment participated in the Tournament of Roses Parade, and the mock trial team won Waukee’s first state title and competed at nationals. We are winners and have created a school where we expect to win. And, with those expectations, we have formulated a nearly perfect environment. 

But, why perfection? Why is Waukee constantly achieving great accomplishments? Despite the setbacks our class has faced, why have we been able to improve and better our community?

Over the past few years, our class has been faced with challenge after challenge. We shifted to online schooling, altering the way we learned. In the midst of a pandemic, our schools split, leading people to feel like they lost connections with close friends. And caused many activities to worry about losing. After rerouting, redirecting, and rethinking this past year, we’ve been able to recreate our culture and improve it, but this hasn’t come without imperfections and setbacks. 

Fewer people in activities and not always winning our games and competitions have been a part of this past year. We desire to return to the overflowing rosters and countless wins throughout all activities. But desiring this perfection confines our goals and limits the realm of improvement. We can’t move backwards and expect to jump back to the top. 

I’ve often been told to “think outside the box,” and I’m sure you have all heard something similar to this at least once in your life. But how can we even start to do that without making mistakes? To expand our comfort zone, to expand our thinking we have to experience imperfections. We have to get worse to be better.

This year has been about rebuilding. Through its imperfections, Waukee has reestablished its excellence. 

Neighboring schools and communities see Waukee as always better, always perfect. But they don’t realize that it’s our imperfections leading us to that image. The end results we produce are a direct product of the setbacks we face.

With our school split, we have expected this year to reflect past years. We have expected outcomes to be as perfect as previous ones. And in doing this we overlook the importance of the shortcomings and the imperfections. 

So what benefit does expecting perfection really hold?

With the conclusion of this ceremony, we will move onto the next stages of our lives. And with that, we have been told, in one way or another, to create a plan for our future. 

What groups will you join? What classes will you take? How will you meet new friends? 

All to create a perfect path to follow. But that path doesn’t exist. Life doesn’t have a straight perfect path to follow. It has a lot of mountains and valleys and deadends and shortcuts and even then we don’t always go in the right direction. Life itself isn’t perfect, so why should we need to be?

By expecting to know what will happen in the coming years, we’re restricting ourselves from living and getting better. We need to dive into the unknown and try to meet new people. Try to join a club. Try to find an internship. All the imperfections and failures that we have to face will show us who we are and what we want to become. 

Our world as we know it is constantly changing and as we enter into it we are inevitably going to be faced with setbacks and challenges. So, I ask you, will you continue to the next stages of your life in a pursuit of perfection? Or will you embrace your imperfections and walk down life’s imperfect path?