Vestavia's Daily Mottos

Written by Jeffrey Zhao and Aditya Sheelavant

Credits: leotoday8 on FaceBook

Curious about our fellow Vestavians, we researched the rules that guide their existence—personal mottos, mindsets that maintained their sanity, and, for some, Flying Spaghetti Monster mantras.

Take Ms. O’Kelley, who reinvigorated our understanding of gratuity by spitting straight facts: “Kindness matters.” Porter Hottle channelled his inner Mr. Horton, professing that we should “Treat people with respect just because they're living, breathing humans." Simply sublime. Terrifically toadalicious 🐸. 

Benji, the sly dog, zestified our s🍋uls when he said, “Always be yourself.” And on a similar wavelength, Mrs. Hyde recalled her mom’s lessons of character, reciting, “Your best is enough!” 

Then, we got the real ones. Inspired by her mentor to maintain the grind-set and always acknowledge the day ones, Lily Xie adduced, “stay hungry and stay humble.” In the same vein, [anonymous senior] philosophized:

Every tide of obligation sweeps me into endless currents,

Refuge I find in the A-Hall Bathroom (No Dividers! No problems! 🥵),

In moments when leisure carries me aloof, I embrace the ambrosial nectar,

Constantly seeking balance between chaos and calm.

Penultimately, we have the hedonists. 

Senior John Lee Wimberly: “It’s been real, it’s been fun, it’s been real fun.”

One of the many Daniels: “Just get sendy. YOLO!”

At last, the nihilists (probably suffering from early senioritis). Aleena Farooqui’s motto? "Just give up. You have nothing to lose if you give up." Krish Chintareddy doubled down with his daily incantation: "When things get too hard, give up so you don't waste your time."

SIKE YOU THINK WE WERE DONE. By the end of our exploration, we may have incited something that can only be described as a declaration of war.

It started with Jack Hugunine's seemingly innocent motto: "Embrace the life of the mind." Intellectually delicious 😋. Thinkopotamus-ly bewitching 🦛.

“Puppet-boy.”

“Perform, puppet-boy. Perform.” (aura…)

Jaymin Bae and Arhaan Lalani were enraged by Jack’s hypocrisy—“endless coffees—imposter; ever-present earbuds—fraud; shameless food thief—Faker.” They saw through his performance and stuck it to him hard.

THEN, in a rebuttal second only to MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Jack booted his ankle weights.

“You’re treading on thin ice, buddy.”

Jack continued to rant, most of which we cannot include for national security’s sake, but we’ll give you a taste of his wrath. His final blow:

“I am insulted by your ignorance. Tossing around egregious accusations with no backbone whatsoever. Could I counter your claims? Yes. Is it worth my time? No.

So, think. You worthless, infantile plebeians. Think.”

So what did we learn from our survey? That the inhabitants of our lovely school think kindness matters. That their best is enough. That the bathroom is the ticket to heaven (according to the anonymous senior). And that if you claim to "embrace the life of the mind," you'd better be prepared to defend your coffee consumption, music choices, and food-stealing habits with the ferocity of a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

P.S. The beef remains unresolved. We'll update you as this story develops. Also, there may be an easter egg above.