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The season where high school kids explore UCLA is back. I love to watch them, wide-eyed and hopeful. “Look,” they whisper, “college students.” “Look,” we think, “high school students.”

In a way, they’re right to gawk. The college student is an amazing creature. We’ve got fresh perspectives on the world, and we’re old enough to be taken seriously (though we could always stand to benefit from a little more wisdom). Sometimes we feel like we can’t change a thing; sometimes we feel like we can change it all.

That’s why I cringe when I watch the high school kids, and then the college kids, and sometimes I see little difference between the two.

After a couple years here, it becomes easy to forget that, along with our introduction to the independence of adulthood, there comes massive responsibilities we need to live up to for ourselves and for others.

I don’t mean just turning in papers on time or studying instead of going out with friends. I mean active participation in a world we will soon inherit, starting with the world we are most directly in contact with: the university.

My form of participation is my attempt to spark and develop ideas in this university system. One of the major differences I hope there is between that youth and this adulthood is the quality of our communication.

In my attempts to bring a new slant on old ideas, I hoped people would step outside their point of view for a moment and try to understand the concept from mine. When I got replies to my columns, I tried to return the favor.

That is the only way to read (or hear) opinion. Without serious readers and a serious columnist, this column – and others like it – become a mere rant. The writers and the readers become individuals wrapped up in their own understandings of things, shouting at the walls.

It all becomes a form of bad entertainment, filed away with the likes of reality TV.

In terms of communication, I suggest you always ask clarifying questions about the things we would most take for granted. Whenever anyone uses an easy, trendy word to describe something, we need to be responsible listeners and make sure we understand what that person means. Only then will our conversations come closer to clarity.

Communication, much like everything else in life, is what you make of it. Better communication leads to better education. Thus, the education here at UCLA is what we make of it.

There is a reason why the top universities are able to boast of a better quality of education. It’s because going into those schools, we expect more and work harder for it. We are the reasons those schools can boast of such challenging programs.

The better educated we are now, the better we (and by extension, the world) will be in the future. So, exhausted as we might be, lazy as we might feel, we must always continue to challenge ourselves.

Take that harder but more fulfilling class. Balance it with something easier so you’re not overworking yourself. Force the professor, the administration, the grad student to expect more of you. Communicate with them. Go to office hours.

Read the Daily Bruin looking for that twist. Understand where the writer is coming from. Expect more of your friends. Then call people on it – whether it be professor, columnist or friend – when they don’t live up to those expectations.

Just getting by is something we could do in high school. We’ve moved on from that.

If we don’t set a higher standard for ourselves and others, we’re just kids with a late curfew.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not paying thousands of dollars to go to an extension of high school.

We’ve got more responsibilities now. But responsibility doesn’t have to be synonymous with boredom or stress, either. The best person is the one who can have fun being responsible.

I strove to fulfill that responsibility this past year – to challenge myself and those reading my columns. And hopefully to entertain people in the process. I was challenged along the way, and I thank you all for that. I hope we can all continue to challenge one another, and validate one another in the process.

And next time a high school student stares at you wide-eyed, smile.

Hashem communicates in colors of English and sociology. E-mail her at nhashem@media.ucla.edu.