As Lakeview Senior Marissa Rush finishes up her last chapter at Lakeview High School, she excitedly looks forward to her future plans and what it will bring her while continuing to cherish the wonderful memories and experiences she has shared within Lakeview. Despite her being excited for her next chapter, she will miss “the impact the teachers had on me” at Lakeview with “their willingness to help me and just check in on me”. Senior year has fortunately gone as planned for Rush, but she can’t deny that senior year is going by unbelievably fast. 

Rush has proudly been a Bulldog for eight years, with one of many reasons being “the work ethic we put into everything to do.” With these eight years in Lakeview, Rush says that she will never forget the memory of “when we had this competition in school about an essay about who you see as a hero or heroes. I just wrote my essay for my personal enjoyment and for my school assignment. I didn’t have any desire to win this competition whatsoever. This was in 7th grade and me and my parents were out to eat and they got a call from the school that I won!  This was unbelievable to me because I had just been writing about my parents who were my heroes. In that moment my parents were so proud of me and that I had an impact on someone. We attended the ceremony in Cortland, Ohio, and I just felt like I accomplished something big even if I was in middle school.”

High school was not always a breeze for Rush as she learned to navigate through life. One of Rush’s biggest obstacles she overcame in her high school years was social anxiety with one of her proudest achievements of the last four years was coming out of her shell and not being as afraid to voice her opinion and express herself in class. Rush recalls that one of her best high school days was when “at the end of my Freshman year, I got awards for my work ethic in English and Algebra and involvement in my history class.”

When looking back on Rush’s four years of high school, her favorite year was freshman year despite not being at Lakeview, she got the experience of non-traditional and engaging classes that further helped her education. Rush also got to participate in Relay For Life at her old school and it revealed to her that she “really enjoyed helping people and helping fundraise for good causes” especially at an event that was personal to her family since she got to help people enjoy life and bring smiles to many faces.

 The unconditional support from her family and friends, allowed Rush to keep working hard and doing her best at all times as she navigated high school and prioritizing her education. Rush has taken a wide variation of classes from one of the hardest classes she has taken being anatomy, and one of the most personally interesting classes being engineering. Classes like engineering taught her to not only challenge herself but to also try new things even if it isn’t something she would think she would enjoy. 

A person in particular that Rush encountered in her high school years that has forever impacted her was her English teacher at her previous school, Mr. McDonald. “My freshman teacher Mr. McDonald was not your traditional English teacher. He made writing interesting and life changing for me. We got to pick a topic to write for an identity essay and one topic that is major for me is adoption. When I had just finally chosen the topic of adoption he was going around and stopped and started reading my essay out loud and I was nervous but I actually ended up impacting his life in a great way. After reading my essay and talking one on one with me about my story he decided to adopt and that was the best feeling. Thinking it was just another English essay but then I ended up doing a great poetry video revealing my adoption story.”

One of the greatest friends Rush made in high school was her friend Saige. Like Mr. McDonald, Saige also has impacted Rush’s life and Rush will miss her the most next year after graduation. “Saige has brought me out of my shell and makes me laugh when I am stressed but also has the strongest work ethic and the biggest optimism and caring heart I have ever seen.”

Another teacher that had an impact on Rush’s life was Mrs. Quinlan. Rush recalls, “Mrs. Quinlan was always positive and always there to help us and to not be so hard on us. She showed me to enjoy the career I decide on in life and to always have a great outlook on life.”

Rush advises younger students to “work hard on schoolwork but also enjoy these years of still being a kid and go for those meaningful experiences and do what you enjoy”, as she wishes she could tell her younger self “everything that happens in high school isn’t going to matter in the real world and that it is good to be different and you will eventually find where you are going to go.”

Rush hopes that in five years she will “finally overcome driving, living in an apartment on my own, maybe learning a skill and going into a career out of it.” In ten years Rush sees herself “financially stable, having a career I enjoy, traveling maybe, and also maybe starting a family soon.”

After high school, Rush plans “to not go to college right away but instead get myself financially stable and to keep working but also exploring what I would like to do for a career for the rest of my life.” Rush also plans to stay home for the next few years as she explores many options for her career. Rush is confident in her future as she feels that Lakeview has properly prepared her in many ways, but significantly work-ethic wise. Rush looks forward to her future plans and exploring all the opportunities that are out there. 

The Bulldogs wish you best of luck in the rest of your high school career and your next chapter after high school!