Lucia Voges, president of the Student Council
There are a number of milestones that come with aging. Growing up in Arlington, I had a big one: joining the Arlington List Facebook group.
As a kid, I remember many of the adults and older kids in my life referencing the list, a social-media platform that connects Arlington residents and other surrounding towns, but it never interested me much until it became relevant to me for Student Council purposes.
Adults similar to kids
When I first joined, I was using it to publicize events to the community, and it was a helpful resource to have insight in what was going on in the town. Every once in a while there would be a conflict, but they were usually benign and quickly resolved.
The older I got, and the more time I spent on the list, I realized how similar many of the adults living in Arlington were to the kids. We had similar problems, and questions, and got into similar arguments over similar things. People overreact no matter how old they get.
More recently, I have seen an influx in this behavior. The list is meant to be free of politics, as are many things in life, but recently there has been a great deal of political conflict on the website.
During high school, I have learned that keeping things nonpartisan used to be much less of a problem. My grandmother is a Democrat who was happily married for many years to Republican.
Leaving, scared
Going off into the world next year, I’ll be truly leaving the Arlington bubble for the first time, and I’m scared.
Will my political views polarize me from new friends?
Will I enter a similar bubble and remain isolated for the rest of my life?
I encourage us all, graduating or graduated to remember that politics are important. They can be indicators of many things about a person, and should not be overlooked or ignored.
But there are things in life, like the list, that do not involve politics, and I hope that as we grow older and continue to get into similar arguments about similar things, we can remember that.
This viewpoint was published Saturday, June 1, 2019.
