Sand Dollar (Analogy)

One of my favorite places is the ocean, so I decided to write my analogy on how a sand dollar is similar to high school.



In 1999 on the shore of the North Carolinian coast, when I was just a Kindergartner, I found a beautiful sand dollar. I felt special that day because not a lot of people were as lucky as me to find one. To this day, my sand dollar is hanging on my wall, framed in a pink shadow box.

When a sand dollar is alive, it is called Echinoid. It burrows underneath the sand and is similar to a sea urchin or starfish, it never really breaches the surface, until it dries up and is turned into it's true, desired form, a sand dollar.

When you begin high school, you start to discover your true self and you are "dried up" to become who you really are or want to be. In middle school you are still very insecure and raw, and you are an Echinoid. When you reach high school and become a sand dollar, you drift in the endless sea, eventually landing on the shore.

You are a sand dollar when you attend high school, because high school is the sea, and when you leave high school you end up on the shore.

In high school, you do your school work, meet new friends, and learn things about life you never knew...but you do what you are told, even though it can be boring and routine because you know that eventually, you will graduate and high school is just a small part of your life. Some kids don't understand this. They drop out, or neglect their grades or responsibilities, or have an experience they didn't want to endure. Some kids become jaded, trying to grow up too fast. But most kids in high school has=ve their struggles or heartbreaks. Not as impactful as the others, but they learn their lessons and learn from the past.

Finally, they graduate high school, and are ready for the part of their life that matters the most...the real world.

When you become a sand dollar looking for the shore, it is hard to find your way. For a while you go with the flow of the sea, and float on to wherever the sea takes you, because eventually you will end up on the shore. Some of the sand dollars are taken by rip tides or the roughness of the water in a storm and they break, never able to be fixed, but they make it to the shore, faster than the other sand dollars...but not as whole. Most of the sand dollars almost are crushed by the rip tides or rough, storm water but they make it out unscathed or with cracks.But after floating on through the water, looking for the shore, their cracks are smoothed out and they look almost brand new again. One fortunate thing the rough water did for the sand dollars was push them towards the shore and showed them the right direction.

Finally, the sand dollars reach the shore, waiting for a giddy, young girl to pick them up and frame. Some waiting on the shore are put in a shop to be sold. The broken ones still have a chance and sometimes find a home, but some are stuck on the shore forever. A sand dollar's true desire is to end up in a frame, to be valued and successful.

I want to be found on the shore and framed, just like the sand dollar I hung on my wall. I think the sea has prepared me to finally find the shore and begin my "real life."