Breaking Limits: Meet Emmanuel Ofori

Tell us about yourself

My name is Emmanuel Ofori and I am a senior at Westerville South High School.

What are some of your favorite books, movies or music?

I don’t have a favorite book, but my favorite genre is Apocalyptic books. I read this really good book called “The Living” back in 8th grade. It was an amazing book about a whole group of young people trying to survive. I’m open to all types of music. I’m a Christian, I don’t listen to secular type of music with bad words in it.

What’s your favorite subject in school and why? Don’t say lunch!

Throughout high school I never really had a favorite subject. But this year, one of my favorite subjects is AQR, which is Advanced Quantitative Reasoning. It’s basically applying math to real life situations. I want to be able to apply math to real life. We make catapults and do a lot of things. So, the class is enjoyable.

What is one thing you’re very proud of accomplishing in high school so far?

Throughout my high school journey I haven’t really done much and that’s my biggest regret. I always told myself back in freshman sophomore year that joining clubs and being a part of something wasn’t me. Then come my junior, senior year, I started becoming part of more things. One thing I have done through high school is track & field and I guess that’s where I’ve accomplished something. I hit a PR (personal record) at the OCC (Ohio Capital Conference) meet. It was one of my biggest jumps of all time. I hit it in long jump.

What are you most passionate about?

One thing that I’m passionate about is helping people. I don’t want to go through details not so much but all through high school. Come senior year, I look back and look around the world, I look in the news, and I realize that people really do need help. One thing I really want to do is just go out and do more. That’s why I’m trying to do more in the community and become part of things more because I want to help other people who are in need or struggling, they need help.

What extracurricular activities are you involved in, and what do you get out of them?

I’m part of track & field and it has really helped me stay disciplined. There have been days where I don’t want to go since those workouts are very intense. But they remind me to stick to the routines, stay disciplined, and get out of your comfort zone. And I really believe that in life, to reach any point you want to reach, you’ve got to get uncomfortable. It’s really helped me to get uncomfortable doing things I didn’t want to do. Another thing I was part of is Interact club which I joined this year, but we haven’t gone into things. Link Crew is another extracurricular activity that I do, it’s a great opportunity for me because I didn’t really do my best my freshman year, so I like the fact that we get to help freshmen, improve and really have a mindset to do better later in high school.

Have you had any impactful experiences with a teacher or a mentor?

Someone who really impacted me is Coach Spatafore (SPAT). I just started talking way more with him this year. He is someone who I really talk to a lot. He’s helped me with my personal problems. He is open and wise. He is not disrespectful and doesn’t pick and choose. He shows so much love to everyone even when people don’t like him. He really impacted me in a way to really be better to get out of my comfort zone like I mentioned before. Doing things that I really didn’t want to do, just reject and tell myself I wouldn’t want to do but he tells me that he has given me so much reason to do those things and pushed me to really become better.

What are some of your academic goals for the rest of the year?

Personally I’m not fully ready to graduate. It’s like I really want to stay in and do a lot for my school. I don’t just want to be gone. I want to do a lot for my school before I leave.

What are your plans after high school?

My plan, as I feel, for most people is to go to college. I haven’t decided what college I want to attend but I have been accepted by some. I want to major in psychology and become Counseling Psychologist because I like to talk to people. I like to be open with people. A lot of people in this world are dealing with things. Like I said before, I want to help people as a lot of people are struggling and don’t have people to talk to and with my personality, I want to be real with them. I want to just sit down and talk with them, remind them that they do have someone to talk to. College really interests me, learning about the brain.

What kind of impact do you hope to have on the world?

I’ve really had the mindset that your worst enemy is yourself. You’re the only one that can limit yourself. I don’t want to set any limits on myself; I truly believe that I can change the world if I don’t set any limits on myself. I believe I can travel across the world and make an impact on people’s lives, help people who are in need, help people who don’t have the right resources. So as far as what kind of impact, I believe I can just make any type of impact that can really change people’s lives.

What’s one thing you hope to change about the world?

For me, I want to get my voice out there to really talk to people because I believe the only way the world can change is through people because we are the reason the world is the way it is. So I believe if you don’t realize what they’re doing is wrong, then there’s no real change happening in the world. Because you can’t change if you don’t make that internal realization that you’re doing something wrong. I want to get people to really understand and really have a change of heart and change of mindset.

What does success mean to you?

I put a lot of weight on success. Especially last year, I dealt with a lot of mental problems. My junior year was very challenging; it was the year where my mindset switched from “Oh I want to be this guy” like everyone else and I became a follower. And that switch made me think “I want to be a leader, I want to be someone better.” Prior to that my mind was everywhere, it was like trying to do better in academics, trying to make impact and it really took a toll on me. So, success is something that really means a lot to me. Because I’ve failed for so long, I need to be successful because even at this point, I don’t want to fail anymore. I’m tired of failing.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing young people today?

I believe a big challenge young people are going through today is being limited. A lot of times, especially from my experience being raised in an African home, a lot of times we are told “you can’t do this or you’re too young, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I feel like we are not being heard because of our age. I believe that people younger than me are smarter than me. I believe that people who are older don’t see the need to listen to people who are younger. All they see is there’s an age gap. They don’t believe that they must listen to us because they are older, they have more authority. They believe they have been through what we are going through, they have stepped in our shoes before, so they believe everything they say is right. I believe that puts a limit on young people, because if we want to go out in the world and do things, we are just told no. We are told “you can’t do this because you don’t know what you are talking about. You know the world is dangerous” but I believe there really must be an understanding and if there is no understanding, we can’t improve, we can’t make a difference because we’re always being limited all the time instead of being able to spread our wings.

What’s one thing you wish adults understood better about teenagers?

One of my biggest words that I really sit on a lot of times is understanding. If there’s no understanding, there’s no solution. If there’s an understanding that age matters but at the same time, if you stereotype teenagers like we are bad, you guys go out and party, you guys go out and do this and do that. If adults come to an understanding that every teenager is different, we wouldn’t have the problem we have now because there is an understanding that everybody’s different. We are not all the same. There’s something unique about every teenager.

What advice would you give to younger students about navigating high school?

The biggest advice I’ll give them is what I struggled with, do not try to be a follower. People like to do what other people are doing because they want to fit in. Fitting in is not all that bad but separation is very important. There comes a point where you don’t even know or tell your actions from another person’s actions. You are doing the same things as them and following in their footsteps. I will say separate yourself, know what you’re doing and make sure that you create a path for yourself instead of trying to join other people’s paths.

How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

Resilient, open-minded, optimistic, and confident.