Mirrors in high school seem like a nightmare for staff, being a place for students to take selfies and miss class. A place that will only increase an individual’s insecurities, and therefore must be an incredible waste of time and moral to upkeep. Contrary to these beliefs, mirrors can actually do high school students a lot of good.
After lunch when someone has eaten a salad, and they want to make sure they don’t have anything stuck in their teeth, what are they going to do? Look in the mirror. When you’ve been in the courtyard and you want to make sure that you didn’t get any leaves in your hair, or anything on the back of your pants, where are you going to check? In the mirror.
Mirrors are self-esteem boosters and give people assurance of their presentation. The benefits of including mirrors in the bathroom would seem to outweigh the issues.
“I hate it because I can’t see myself and because sometimes I have to rush to the bus and I don’t see myself completely. I check myself on my phone, but it’s different,” said Ozioma Michael, junior.
The loss of the mirrors seems to have only made student’s lives harder. Signing out to use the restroom and having to use your phone camera to check your appearance is much more difficult and time-consuming than if we had mirrors to use.
Self-esteem and self-appreciation for a lot of people are strained and difficult during their high school years. In order to make checking up easier and to allow people the certainty of their appearance, mirrors would largely help.
Bringing back the mirrors would also allow us to once again spread love and body appreciation, and make it possible to put up sticky notes again like former Athens students Emily Williams and Kimmy Gebbia did for Make A Difference Day in 2016. Spreading positive messages such as the ones these girls did can help increase self-esteem and allow the students of Athens Drive to support each other in new ways.
The re-addition of the mirrors in the bathroom could ease student’s frustration, and give all of us a chance to increase our self-confidence and share positive messages with our classmates.