This is my twelfth and final column for The Crimson Crier (this was my first). I'm graduating at the end of the month. What now, freshmen?

But I'm not going to bore everyone to tears with shout-outs to the teachers who helped me along the way, my parents, the dog, the company that makes my favorite breakfast cereal and the guy who invented sporks. That tedium belongs to Greg and Jonathan.

Instead, I'm going to bore everyone to tears with the handful of lessons I learned in the past year and on my trip to Washington, D.C. with the government team last month.

I rewatched a movie that I hadn't seen in a long time called Empire Records. Last summer I adopted the motto of the movie's protagonist, Lucas: "I don't regret the things I've done, but those I did not do." Words to live by. They have served me well.

In August, the extent of my knowledge of the Constitution came from a misspent youth of Law & Order reruns. I wasn't sure I wanted to be on the government team, but since hindsight is always 20/20, I can tell you that it has been the best experience of my high school career. No experience has better prepared me for my future than becoming familiar with the documents that make our country work. After all, freedom is not free, and, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Everyone had their own motivation to succeed at our competition in the nation's capital. At first, I was just in it for Mrs. Schmitz, who taught me more in eight months than a whole passel of pontificators managed to do in the preceding thirteen years. I wanted to win for Mrs. Schmitz so she could simultaneously go out on top and show those clowns on the school board a thing or two.

But, as she once told us, "a good leader makes people believe in the leader. A great leader makes people believe in themselves." She was a great leader.

We didn't win, which was certainly no shock to anyone, least of all the private magnet government and world history school that claimed the first place trophy, but we did earn the title of Southeast Regional Champs and a spot somewhere in the top fifteen.

Before we got that honor, we had to sit through a speech from the president of the National Association of Student Councils. He talked about the power of voting and how we, as citizens just gaining the right to vote, we are a powerful force that can have an impact in Washington.

I leaned over and whispered to Laura that he was a little over the top. She said something that stuck with me. "Maybe we need more people who are over the top."

When we got back to the hotel that night, I congratulated a girl from the incumbent Arizona team on achieving fourth place. I told her that the scoring was questionable at best and she should be proud of her accomplishments. She agreed with me and then pointed out that "the top teams worked just as hard as we did. They deserved it." I was humbled and impressed by her grace and class.

Now that I know "more about our government than 92% of Americans," according to the executive director of the Center for Civic Education, I am more certain than ever that there are things I don't like about it. I also know my rights and recourses, the ways I can seek to change these things.

Since I saw someone else do it on a park bench at Georgetown University, I figure it's okay to quote Ben Folds: "The world is full of ugly things that you can't change. Pretend it's not that way. That's my idea of faith."

The world is far from perfect, but we can make it a little better. Change begins with the individual, after all.

In a world where our liberties are dying every day (and Jaydolph will remind you that every law is a restriction on liberty, from speed limits to anti-smoking ordinances), it is more important than ever that we, the people, the youth, the future of our country get involved.

There was a poster Mrs. Schmitz had on the wall of her classroom that said, "Stand up for what is right even if you are standing alone." In a perfect world, no one would be standing alone. Of course, in a perfect world, everything would be right.

So there you have it. Live without regret. Fight injustice. Believe in yourself. Be over the top. Do it classy. Have faith. Change begins with you. Get involved. Do the right thing. If you follow this advice and it doesn't work, don't blame me. It was everyone else's idea. But when it does work, feel free to thank me. You can just make the check out to me.

***

So there you have it. My entire high school newspaper career has come to an abrupt halt. Which works, I guess, because I'm ready to leave anyway.

I'm more interested in this Killer Bees thing in the Texas legislature. It's an interesting way to fight legislation. Is it legal? Maybe. Is it gutsy? Yes. But maybe we need more gutsy people in elected office if things are going to change around here.

Anyway, I graduate two weeks from tonight, so keep those cards with checks in them coming. They're pretty fun to come home to. My birthday's coming up too, you know. You guys rule.