“Purpose is fighting for something bigger than yourself, knowing that whatever you do you’re not going to hold back because that purpose is always there,” senior Tom Todderud said.
Seniors on this year’s football team have chosen the word that will represent their season: purpose. This tradition of choosing a word each season started in 2008 with “tenacity.” All of the words since have been engraved on a special rock on the south end of the football field.
“I always tell the team that you are every other word on that rock. Those words aren’t the past. They are the legacy that you will continue,” coach Steve Valach said. “If you declare it publically you need to live it out publically. If it is on that rock, it is sand blasted, it is carved on there, and it will be on there forever.”
The football seniors this year have been through the words “grit”, “believe”, and “family”. With words like those, they wanted to choose a word this year that was not only important to them, but also to the whole community of Liberty.
“We felt ‘purpose’ fit the whole school and not just our football team,” senior Jacob Thoreson said. “This year’s word may not be something you chant onto a battlefield but it is a constant reminder to the team that this is what we are here for, and this is why we do what we do.”
An average student’s purpose can be to get good grades, or anything else that gives them reason to get things done. But it can also be a longer goal, such as a life goal.
“A purpose statement helps you remember what your long term goal is and helps you to find out who you are,” Valach said. “As a team, when you know who you are, that gives you so much power, and in general, it helps you live with more certainty and focus.”