With two bottles of prescription pain medication and a half pint of ice cream by my side, I held an ice pack to my swollen face as I struggled to decide what my last column for The Chronicle would be about.

I hardly realized that the pathetic scene I had set for myself perfectly embodied the one trait I can honestly say Harvard-Westlake has instilled in all of its students: resilience.

In the grand scheme of things, attempting to write this article only a few hours after having my wisdom teeth removed may not seem like that impressive of an endeavor. However, reflecting on the last three years I’ve spent at the Upper School, there is a clear pattern established in my own life, as well as in the lives of those around me. My peers, friends and fellow journalists embody resilience.

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. While our grade has been called mediocre and average, our ability to overcome hardship is far from ordinary.

From incredible sports injury recoveries to improving mental health awareness, the Class of 2018 gets up when they are knocked down.

We’ve grown up in a world of helicopter parenting, with our lives practically planned out until the minute we leave home for college. Generations before us criticize our dependence on our families, predicting a future of failure when we enter “the real world”.

Harvard-Westlake students will almost certainly outperform this expectation. As challenging as the last three years have been, HW has prepared us to tackle obstacles in the future with confidence.

While the incredible teachers, amazing opportunities and hardworking peers contribute to much of our potential, they are not the reason this class can succeed. It is their confidence, their determination and their resiliency that make success so imminent. They can because they think they can.