It is August 5th and my friend Generic_Name can not hang out today, and I am pretty sad about that. If only he had chosen an easier topic for his summer project, and done it earlier. Although some believe otherwise students should be able to design their own project, because they will have the creativity factors that controlled projects would not, they can choose their own subject, and they have an increased growth in responsibility.

Us students love the creativity aspect of getting to choose how we get to work. We hate being bound to guidelines and rules set by other people. Whenever I get to choose how I do my projects I always seem to do better on them when I get to be more creative. A couple of months ago, my AP Environmental sciences teacher let us choose an end of year project. She said "as long as you get it in on time, I do not care what or how you do it. The project just has to pertain towards some of the topics that we learn during the course." I loved getting that freedom from her, because I got to do it how I wanted and I got to be more creative with it too. I ended turning in that project within a month, because it was something that I wanted to do. If I was bound to the rules I would have procrastinated until the night before it was due. Some may disagree, saying that they are more likely to do the project when guidelines are given and when students are forced not to be creative. That reasoning is flawed due to the fact that my friend Generic_Name was given a similar project, but with guidelines saying the stuff that she could and could not do. She has always been better than me at turning in assignments. When I found out that I had turned in my project before her ,I was astonished. I asked her why she had not not done yet. She said that she had not even figured out what she was going to do. She was bound to do what she was told to do and she lost the creativity factor that she has always loved. Creativity is vital to a students success when doing projects. It ensured that every project is different and more entertaining than traditional projects.

Getting to choose a subject also makes the project more enjoyable for the students. If students were given a choice to select a subject that they would do a summer project on, they would most likely choose the subject that they feel more confident in. My mother always says that she loved to do projects on history (which was her favorite subject when she was in high school). She said that whenever she would get to do a project on it she would get A's and B's every time, but she would get C's on other projects that was not on her favorite subject. This choice in subjects was a morale booster for her. When she got good grades she got more confident and when she got more confident she got better grades. The choice correlated with her mental health and her school life, because she always felt good about her work.

Some say that if we get assigned a subject then we will be more likely to do what the person who grades is looking for. That is not the case, because of my friend Generic_Name. Generic_Name had to do a summer project last year and he had no idea what to do. He called me an asked what my project was on. I told him that me and just about everyone in our friend group was doing our project on History. When the school year started I asked him what he did it on, and he said his project was on Economics. When we got our grades back he had gotten the highest out of all of our friends. This just shows that it is more likely for someone to get a better grade when they get to choose a project subject or topic that they enjoy to do.

In our youthful society responsibility is a huge part of maturing. Getting to choose a project makes kids more responsible in the long run. This past weekend my parents left me home while they went to go watch my sister play lacrosse at Generic_School in Rhode Island. I stayed home with my dog and had a lot of time to myself and to my studies. I could have pushed it off until Sunday night, but I decided to do the responsible thing and do it during the day on Saturday. The choice I made was the right one, because I had the rest of the weekend to myself and got to relax and not stress about having to do my homework. If I can choose to be responsible now then I can be responsible when it comes to a summer project. I think that growth in responsibility will also have a great effect on everyone that does this project. The responsible person would choose to do the project earlier in the summer, but the kids that procrastinate will stress about this until the day before the project is due. Some think that responsibility has nothing to do with this project, that is not true. We are trusted to be responsible young men, women, or however people identify themselves. This project is not just about learning at school, but learning about life. When given the choice to do the project how we want to do it responsibility plays a huge factor. Factors like: Will we get it done on time, how will we do it, what topic will we do it on, and if the project actually had time spent on it or if it was just sped through. Us students need to be responsible in order to get in to good colleges, get good jobs, and live good lives. It all starts with projects like these. When all of these factors are put together they are more likely to make us more responsible in the long run.

When we get to choose what we do for projects like these it makes everyone feel good about what they are turning in. It could be the coffee in my system talking, but us students have responsibilities and we need to start being trusted and treated like adults. We want to be creative like adults, think like adults, and live like adults. It all starts with letting us choose a subject for our projects. After all we are the future of society.