Senior year has gone by much faster than I ever expected. Even though I still have exciting senior activities to look forward to, there are so many things that I will never experience again: watching high school football games, being on a sports team, going to homecomings and winter formals, and more. Knowing that I’m leaving soon gets me excited for the future, but also forces me to reminisce on the past.
In my freshman and sophomore years, I was just excited to be in high school. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily ready to be in high school, but I was there, and I was super excited to be at McDaniel, surrounded by the kindest future friends. Most of my time was spent with my friends rather than studying or doing homework. Some people wish they did more in their underclassman years, but I think those years are meant to be enjoyed. In these years, I took many electives such as AVID, art classes such as Photography and Design Foundations, Sustainable Agriculture, and Speed & Strength Training. Through these classes, I figured out what I liked and what I did not like, and met amazing people.
In my junior year, I started to feel panicked. I thought that I should be focusing more on my classes rather than spending time with friends, but I was already in that habit of skipping out on homework. After the first few months, I felt better, and I started to feel a very similar way as I do now. I felt like time was catching up to me, and high school would soon be over. My circle of friends became tighter, and I started thinking about what my future would look like.
I joined the newspaper in my senior year because writing has always been fun to me, and I knew a few friends were also joining. Newspaper has been another fun elective that I am super grateful for because I have learned more about my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. I have discovered what career path I want to go down, where I will be next fall, and I have a new set of goals for my college self. And even though I know the things that should be defining me and my next year, I still have no idea how my choices will influence my future.
Mentally, I have already graduated, but in reality, I am still in high school, writing a piece for my eighth-period newspaper class, but I see that as a good thing. No matter how far ahead my mind goes or how fast my thoughts are racing, I am still here, surrounded by support from friends and closer to home than I will be next year. The thing I am most proud of myself for is that I have grown in ways I didn’t even think of and can’t even identify.
