If there’s one thing CHS students have in common, it’s that we all love to complain. Whether it’s that annoying teacher who assigned an essay due the next day, or the stupid new testing policy that makes all of your science and Spanish tests on the same day, most are quick to point out the flaws of CHS.

I have done my share of complaining too. But looking back, there is really no reason why there is so much discontent at our school. We all know we go to an incredible school—    we are ranked first in Maryland for a reason—but at times it seems like people just go looking for reasons to complain.

Take the recent Wellness Weekend. The administration gave us a weekend where teachers weren’t allowed to give homework! What could possibly be bad about this? Still, students chose to find reasons to complain.

“Why wasn’t it the weekend of Prom?” many students griped. First of all, seniors have a senior exam on Monday that can’t be changed. Besides that, Prom is only for seniors. The administration tried to do something nice for us, but no, people had to look the negatives in that.

Another complaint that we all love to make is about the new testing policy. While I am not a fan of it, at least it was an attempt to try to help us. Many students also like to forget that it was students who pushed for this policy. In other words, we asked for something, we were given it, then we all freaked out.

We also all hate those teachers who won’t round up that 89.4 percent at the end of the quarter. As annoying as it may be, if you are one-tenth of a point away from an A, that means you earned a B. Yes, I was very frustrated when I got an 89.3 percent in math. But still, Montgomery County has chosen 89.5 percent as the cutoff point, and so that is what must stand.

By far, the most common complaint at CHS is the lack of school spirit. Ironically, most of the time this comes from people who wouldn’t dare step foot into the football stadium on a Friday night or be willing to take a 15-minute drive out to Rockville for a hockey game.

If you think that CHS has bad spirit, there is a simple solution—put on your CHS apparel and just go to an event. We have plenty, whether it be a play, a game or an SGA-sponsored event.

I realize that it is a lot easier as a senior looking back to say stop complaining, but CHS has so much going for it. We are lucky to go to a school with other students who are motivated and to be taught by so many great teachers.

Is it cliché to look back on my high school experience and say appreciate what you have? Absolutely. But the reason that so many people say this is because once you’re almost done, it’s easy to see how much you got out of the past four years.