Nav Sekhon

Quitting Isn’t Always Bad

Throughout my time at Milton, I have quit. A lot. Starting in my freshman year, I first quit piano and tennis—my two biggest ‘things’ outside of school. I realized I wasn’t fantastic at piano by any measure, and given how how screwed up my ankles were following my intense career in Freshman Basketball, I figured I didn’t care much for tennis. Sophomore year, I realized I severely lacked in scientific understanding, so I never took a class in it afterwards. Finally, junior year I quit basketball because I just didn’t care.

However, I quit all of those ‘passions’ for new ones. If I wanted to continue with piano, then I wouldn’t be able to take Studio Art, which I suddenly loved after Freshman Studio Art with Ms. Swayne. That once-a-week class completely changed my Milton career, especially because I despised art due to my disbelief in my abilities. Now, I like to think that because I put in the absurd amount of hours and ruined many clothes from oil paint that I’m a better artist and have found a passion that I really hope to continue. Moreover, during junior year I realized that instead of going to basketball practice for two hours, I could carve out that time to do homework so that I could attend The Milton Paper meetings as an associate editor.

In reality, TMP changed my entire high school career. I didn’t respect high school journalism entering Milton. I thought they impacted nothing, and I didn’t quite understand why people would believe they had a voice as high schoolers. Yet one article, written by Hari Patel ‘15, shook the entire school as he took on Black Lives Matter. I don’t remember the entire article, but seeing one student incite constructive dialogue throughout the entire student body showed me what journalists could do. Following freshman year I took a journalism course and discovered my new ‘thing.’ For me, becoming associate editor was confusing and intimidating; I felt that I wasn’t nearly passionate enough yet to be so involved in such a frat-like organization, but the relationships that I built with TMP 34 pulled me further into journalism so that I found what I really wanted to do.

I quit a lot because I want to be ‘all in’ when I do something. If I won’t give my all to the basketball team, why should I waste my time and my teammates’ time? If I won’t take time to practice piano, why should I waste my teacher’s effort? When I found myself unknowingly spending six hours in the AMC to work on a painting, completely overtaken by the paintbrush strokes so that I didn’t notice that my playlist had repeated at least three times, I knew I needed to invest in art. When I chose to take yet another writing course over the summer rather than try a new subject like computer science or whatever’s hot now, I knew I needed to continue writing even though my anxiety about having an economically safe future haunted my confidence.

Ironically, I quit because I’m passionate. During the college process, I heard many of my peers talk about putting down as many clubs and leadership positions as possible, but given that I had quit almost everything so that I could focus on my two arts meant that I didn’t boast being head of three clubs or captain of two teams. I expected to feel nervous, as if my application wouldn’t stand out because I maybe did too little. However, I didn’t spend my five years in high school doing things for college. I took risks, built relationships, and experienced life. After speaking with so many alumni and hearing them say, “I didn’t have time for [fill in the blank] because I was so focused on academics,” I knew I could never be that person. Sure, I prioritize school above everything else, but that mindset doesn’t mean that I never had time to experiment during my developmental years. I came to Milton to learn—I dropped my life in Los Angeles to come here, but Milton means learning beyond the classroom. I came to Milton to change, and it looks as though I did a complete 180.

Milton taught me to live with no regrets. Sure, I messed up a lot and could have made better decisions many times. Even so, I value learning from my mistakes and growing from those experiences. During senior year, I’ve been asked “What do you regret most from your time at Milton?” a lot. I don’t have an honest answer for that question because even though sometimes I miss feeling the cool sensitivity of the piano keys or the community of being on a team, I’m proud of where I have ended up now.

Through quitting I found that it’s okay to know what you love and to pursue it with everything you have. The stigma around quitting bleeds into the pressure to stretch ourselves out until we’re scared to commit. I encourage you to do what you want to do—whether that means spending time with friends, getting into a relationship, or quitting violin after 12 years—because you can always find your way back, but you will miss out on these rare opportunities if you’re too scared to quit. Allow yourself to learn outside of the classroom with those around you and to let them change your mind. Reflect on your time here and learn from your experiences with no regrets.

Love enough to quit.