During Tuesday’s Afton City Council meeting, there were more high school students in the audience than concerned residents.

These high school students were in attendance for civics or government classes.

Seeing all of these high schoolers got me thinking back to when I was a high school student attending city council meetings.

Back then, I moaned and groaned about having to go these “boring” meetings and how I’ll never go to a city council meeting again. Boy was I wrong.

Back then I never imagined myself attending city council or planning commission meetings regularly and for the most part enjoying them.

Even though the Afton City Council meetings can sometimes get long, there is never a dull moment.

I remember back in high school, I occasionally saw people in the audience hurriedly writing and scribbling notes, or paying very close attention. Back then, I thought to myself “what could possibly be so interesting? why take notes?”

Now that I have been covering city council meetings professionally for the past four or so years, I understand why city council meetings can be interesting.

When you follow these discussion regularly and hear all of the different arguments and see the conflicts, you can’t help but be fascinated by how complex a small city like Afton can be.

Back in high school I found myself escaping the meetings as soon as possible, now I find myself staying to the very end, most of the time, because a lot of times some of the most interesting tidbits come about at the end of the meeting.

So for any of you high school students out there, don’t take your “boring” homework assignments for granted, don’t think you’ll never need to use what you learn, because your future may surprise you.

- Amber Kispert