Here I am, almost done my senior year. It’s overwhelmingly shocking to believe this whole high school thing will all be over in a short three months. No more of seeing the people I’ve known since kindergarten, the people I have grown up with, and the people I call my best friends every day. As excited as I am to graduate and start my life, I cannot deny that my heart aches for all the memories we will be betraying as we walk across the stage early June. Going to school where I have has allowed me to discover who I am and the people I belong with.

Lexi Thompson (’17) has mixed feelings about graduating. “I can meet new people and take classes to prepare me for my future career, but I am sad I won’t see a lot of my freinds as frequently. It is a big change.”

My mother has always told me to never rush my life, and to appreciate every moment in school I can get. The closer June 3 approaches, the more I realize she is correct. I will never again get another high school homecoming game and dance, or be in the cast of another musical produced in high school. I will never again get to roll my windows down and blast my car radio as my best friend, sitting in the passenger seat, and I scream the words to our favorite song after a seven hour school day. I will even miss the struggle of finding a place to sign up in the morning for enrichment before the homeroom bell or the constant worry about missing the school bus in the morning. It is the little things which made high school worth it, and they will soon only be memories embedded my head.

“They have been so worried about getting into college and finding a place which feels like home. Now that they have, I’m excited for them to take their next step towards adulthood, even if I’m a year behind them,” said Morgan Zinkhan (’18), her close friends being seniors.

Things will never be the same again and that is simply the reality I must face as my heart becomes heavy from the thought of leaving the place where I have matured. Even though there is an abundance of ‘lasts’ during senior year, they all lead to one humungous start; life after high school.