By Dylan ’32
Hi! My name is Dylan, and I’m in 8th grade at Harvard-Westlake. Many people look at Harvard-Westlake’s beautiful campus, amazing athletics, and great academics, but Harvard-Westlake is really built on the little moments, like a teammate supporting you when you make a mistake, a teacher going out of their way to help you, or even just a friend checking in to see how you’re doing. These small moments are what make the overall experience at the school what it is.
There are countless small moments when a friend or teacher showed kindness to me, but a few of them really stood out.
On the school tennis team, I was in a doubles match, and it was a tense moment. The rally had been going on for a while, and it was a big point. I took a shot and missed. Instead of getting upset or yelling at me, my doubles partner said, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just communicate better and focus on the next point.” That meant so much to me. Even though we lost the point, I knew my teammate had my back, and that we had the right mentality: moving forward past mistakes. It was a valuable lesson learned through a small moment.
Another time, my advisor saw me stressed out in the hallway because I couldn’t connect to a printer in time to print my English assignment. He took an extra 10 minutes out of his day, had me send him a digital copy, and printed it for me since he was already connected to the printers. That’s another thing about Harvard-Westlake. My advisor is super busy and has a lot on his plate, but he still took time out of his day to help me. He didn’t do it because anyone was watching or because it would benefit him. He did it out of the kindness of his heart, just so I wouldn’t have to stress.
Another small moment was when I met with my math teacher, Mr. Ross, during WIN time after I didn’t do so well on a quiz. Instead of focusing on what I did wrong, he genuinely acknowledged that we’re all human. After we went through the quiz together and I felt a lot more confident, he told me that I clearly understood the material and maybe just had one of those days. That helped me so much more than criticism would have. It taught me an even more valuable lesson: sometimes you’ll have setbacks, but what matters is shaking them off and moving on.
I’ve learned so much from these small moments. Sometimes it’s not about what was said, but what you learned and how it made you feel. Harvard-Westlake has so many great big attributes, but some of the best lessons happen outside the classroom, just from interacting with the truly good people here.
