For the past couple of years, Hastings High School has created an unaffiliated student-run tradition of running a ‘commitments’ Instagram page. Students, if attending college, may submit their baby photos, as well as their intended major and college decision, to be posted to the public account. The page recognizes the graduating class and serves as a widespread method of communication to inform the community about which colleges the seniors decide to attend and what the future holds for the graduates. We sat down with the current authors of the commitments page to ask about the process of running the account, as well as some controversy and backlash they faced this year surrounding their posting schedule. They requested to remain anonymous.
Eden Goldman-Wetzler (EGW): How did you acquire the role of running the HHS college commitments Instagram page?
HHS Commits (HHSC): We had two friends that did it in previous years, so we were interested because we thought it was a fun way to celebrate [the class of 2025’s] great achievements…We know that this year we had a little bit of drama, but basically we had reached out to people that were recruited for sports initially, and we said ‘feel free to post to our page if you’d like to’ and that’s how we got it.
Orly Fishman (OF): What inspired you to want to run the commits page?
HHSC: We think that college is just a huge stressor for everyone, and we feel like [the commitments page] is a rite of passage…We thought it would also be nice to, you know, find an outlet or a way to celebrate our grade’s achievements as well as our own, and to put it out there for everyone to see because college is such a monumental part of many people’s lives.
EGW: Do you think that having a commitments page is a positive or negative experience for students to see online?
HHSC: On one hand, a lot of people see it the way we do, which is celebrating everyone’s achievements. It’s a nice way of just seeing how everyone’s grown up. But, on the other hand, a lot of people judge others based on the school that they’re going to. It does add more pressure, especially knowing that not just students are seeing the page, but parents, teachers and people outside of the community. We do think that it’s a rite of passage and important to have this page. It feels nice when your friend reposts [on Instagram] your commitment and when you have people congratulating you. On the other hand, it does create a little bit more pressure in the college application process.
OF: Why do you think students feel it is important to have their commitment posted?
HHSC: We think it’s just a way of feeling appreciated and celebrated by others. We think that although it shouldn’t be an essential part of your experience as a student, a lot of people seek validation from others, especially because college is such a difficult process in itself, so being posted to the page is almost like a final push in not only your college decision, but also marking the end of your high school career. We think that people just like to be celebrated, which, honestly, it’s natural.
EGW: What challenges did you face while running and creating the page?
HHSC: Well, one thing is time management. We did face a lot of backlash [for our posting schedule]… Coming up with captions that are personalized to each person was another hard thing. Also, coming up with the theme itself, the actual template, we had to consult with our friends who have run the page before. We also had to get opinions from close friends who knew we were doing this. Also, just kind of keeping it on the down low. We think that Hastings is such a small community, so obviously people will find out sooner or later who was running the page.
OF: What criteria do you use to ensure you’re not offending students, but you’re still making funny captions?
HHSC: We think that major things that you shouldn’t touch on [in captions] are anything that has to do with political views, religion, or anything that’s too personal. Also, anything that you know students have struggled through and using it as a joke is never acceptable. When it comes to [the caption], it’s all about thinking about your shared experiences with the student… Something that’s just not too personal, which is a major pointer that we got from people running the page last year.
EGW: Controversially, how do you feel about the backlash you received about your posting schedule?
HHSC: We think that students need to realize that the person running the page is a student as well. Although it wasn’t ideal, and the timing of things could have been a little bit more efficient — that’s our fault. We do feel like it’s just an Instagram post, and you can wait to repost the story. Having people not only direct message you just repeatedly [was frustrating], but also people not understanding how long it took to make the template itself, then to make the caption, then to consult with people, to make sure that the caption is acceptable, then to also make sure that it’s to the person’s liking. It’s a process. It might seem like a simple thing where you copy-paste the template and change the colors, but it does take more time than people know.
OF: What do you think is the best thing about posting and running the page?
HHSC: Running the page gave us a new appreciation for our classmates. Being able to celebrate people that we either didn’t get to talk with a lot in our high school experience, or learning about new or surprising career paths that our classmates have taken, it just makes us really happy to be the person that posts it and makes them feel celebrated. To the people reading this, as the person who’s running the commitment page, we’re very proud of all our classmates. It makes us really happy to see how well everyone has done and how well they will do in the future!
EGW: How do you feel about the accounts for younger grades, like ‘hhs__commits2027’ being created?
HHSC: Although we think that it’s interesting that they’re creating pages so early on, we think it kind of takes away from how special and serious it is to be the person who starts the new page. We think that a commits page emerging is a rite of passage that signifies the beginning of your senior year. Starting it so early really takes away from how special it is for the incoming senior class.