Futuristic sword duels, flying at the speed of light, and armies exploding planets are all a part of a popular movie franchise by the name of Star Wars. Due to that franchise, a new Star Wars club has been created at Rowland Hall. The club started this year and was created by Jamison Oleksy, Sawyer Orgain, Jon Poll [teacher], and Abdallah Butt [me]. The club consists of activities such as watching Star Wars movies, lightsaber battles, Star Wars jeopardies, and much more. However, could the club contribute to helping students do well in school?

Based on my experience, going to the Star Wars club on Mondays and Wednesdays during lunch kind of helps me cope with school. For example, if my school week is filled with quizzes or exams, when I go to Star Wars club, the activities we do in the club help me relieve any stress I have. In addition, they help me think positively of the quizzes ahead of me and give me some motivation. Although you might think that’s because I’m a fan of Star Wars, in my opinion you don’t have to be a fan to enjoy the club. You could just participate in the activities and relieve your stress; it only depends on whether the activities are fun or not. 

Yet the club offers more than stress relief, it also gives students an opportunity to learn lessons from watching the Star Wars movies they stream. I’ll tell you why.

The Star Wars films have a big idea of a student and a master/teacher. A quote from a blog by Adam Schoenbart says, “Whether you’re a jedi master or young Padawan, or don't even know what these terms mean, the lessons of the Star Wars saga can help us all be better teachers and make real transformational change in our world and our students' lives.” 

This is true in my life because when I watched Star Wars: Rogue One as a kid, I learned that even if you have fear of something, you should always be determined to fight that fear and move on (referring to how the rebels fought the Galactic Empire). 

Another quote from the same article states that people could learn appreciation from Star Wars: “It’s important to look back, recognize where we’ve come from, and those who helped us along the way.” The quote reminds us that there are always people who’ve helped us become what we are today. This is a reference to how any jedi in Star Wars always appreciates what their jedi masters/trainers have done for them. 

It’s time to get opinions from our fellow Rowland Hall students about this topic. 

I interviewed Jamison Oleksy, who helped in the creation of the Star Wars club and started by asking him what inspired him to make the club. He said, “Sawyer, Abdallah, and I created Star Wars Club as a place where nerds and geeks can talk about the things they love with other passionate people; of course we also wanted to just have a good time doing Star Wars stuff.” 

Jamison was a part of creating the Star Wars club so everyone in it could chatter about things they like about Star Wars. However, could this help in school, in Jamison’s opinion? 

Jamison adds, “It helps that Star Wars Club is in the middle of the day at lunch, giving students an opportunity to relax from school for an hour of watching movies. Though I don’t feel like Star Wars lessons work a lot in school, … they are useful in real life.”

After reading this quote, I have one question, why does Jamison think the lessons are more useful in life rather than school? Let’s see what other students have to say about this. 

 

I interviewed Sawyer Orgain [another creator of the club] and asked him to give an example of what Jamison said. He says, “I think that students can learn from Anakin Skywalker to find the best way out of your situation even if it's inherently bad, and also to pursue all of your options to find what's best for you (even if it's the dark side).”

Sawyer isn’t necessarily saying that becoming evil is good. He is hinting that it’s better to pick what you think is going to make you successful and always keep a success-driven mindset in every situation. We can use this for literally anything in our lives, and that’s why Sawyer proves Jamison’s claim that Star Wars lessons are more useful in life than in school. 

Sawyer ends with, “The light side teaches you to keep a calm and level head even in stressful situations. The dark side teaches you to achieve as much as you possibly can. The gray jedi teaches you to not conform to the only options people put in front of you, but to follow your own path and choose what you do.”

An example of this is how you pick a career that you think is perfect for you in life, and you try to achieve as much as you can from that certain job. However, you still stay calm to keep the flow of the career going, and you won’t let any problems get in the way. In other words, you don’t need to choose “one” right path, but instead could use what is good from each path to create your own success.

 

Overall, Star Wars could teach you many lessons that you could use both in your life and in school. The lessons could range from having appreciation for those who’ve helped you to not giving up when you’re trying to get something. Thus, Star Wars could be a tool for you to use if you want a life lesson or simply just a stress reliever to help you cope with school or hard times.