Counselors: they are always here for us – go talk to them

Sydney Dybing, Opinion Editor

I cherish sleeping through my first period senior waiver, so waking up at 6:30AM on a day where I didn’t start classes until 9:00 was not something I was looking forward to. However, seeing as it’s my senior year there are a lot of pesky things to be done with the limited 24 hours in a day, such as writing college application essays and asking for letters of recommendation. Thankfully, the counselors at this school make that second part as easy and stress-free as possible.

During September of this year, I ended up staying at my letter of recommendation counseling appointment with Kay Hutchinson, the A-H counselor, for nearly an hour and a half. In addition to helping me by writing me a letter, we had a really good conversation about my experience at Liberty and what I was looking forward to after high school. It was incredibly valuable for me to have Ms. Hutchinson to talk to about senior stress, as she had seen others go through it before and could help me stay focused on looking forward.

Sometimes it’s difficult to understand that the counselors at this school really can care about all of their students, despite overseeing 300-400 people apiece, but I know Ms. Hutchinson always had my best interests in mind. She took more than enough time out of her day than I needed to simply get a recommendation letter because she wanted to get to know me, and for that I am extremely grateful.

I regret having never talked to Ms. Hutchinson before I had ask for things this year, so I would advise other Patriots to take advantage of the knowledge that our counselors at this school have early. They want to get to know you – and you certainly won’t regret having that conversation.