Who Knew High School

August 15, 2013 was the date that I entered high school. I had high hopes for the upcoming high school years to be my best years ever since I was in sixth grade. I expected that I can make more friends, join more club activities, and can choose classes that I really like. Although I was very enthusiastic and eager to start the all new school years, I also had a lot of worries and confusion about it also. The night before I start my freshmen year, the thoughts of failing classes, and be able to graduate high school kept

    And, finally, we reach my Senior year. The last stretch. It was a long journey, but I had come into my own skin. I knew where I wanted to go in life (or I had a fairly good idea, at least). Toxic people were ridden of. Of course, things weren’t always bright and sunny, for clouds and rain still made appearances on occasion. But the storms never stayed too long.

As I approached the front doors of the school with my friends, I was still bursting with excitement, in fact we all were. This was going to be the best 3 years of our lives cause we were in junior high and officially teenagers. The school was the biggest school that we had yet to attend, stretching for miles it seemed like. We saw all of the older, cool kids walking into the school and wanted to be just like them. Then there was

Almost a year ago I started my first day of high school, to some people that may seem like one of the least important days of their life, but for me it made me realize that it was going to be the last year I walk through those doors to attend class, and the last time I step out onto the soccer field with some of my closest friends. As I walked through the double doors that would officially start my last year at USA High School, I looked up and my entire graduating classes names were posted up on the wall, where soon our pennants of the colleges we were going to attend would hang. High school holds some of the happiest memories for some people, from times they were at Friday night football games with their best friends, or late-night adventures they went on, but for me it was being on the soccer team. Throughout my entire high school career, I was happiest when out on the field, playing against local schools with the people I have gotten so close to over the years.

My high school years, unlike the past years of steady achievements, felt much more like a sine graph with ups and downs. To begin with, I conquered my freshman year in a breeze. My easily achievable classes not only earned myself confidence, but also admiration and respect from my classmates and teachers. As a result, I comfortably acclimated myself to the status of a star student.

The beginning of high school is the start to the next four years of hell. No one wants to be there. Everyone says, “these will be the best four years of your life!” Along with, “it goes by so fast,” and, “in the blink of an eye,” but the truth is, I don’t see it. Every waking moment I have to sit through a lecture in a cold, solid, chair is like sitting silently next to your parent in a car as they scold you for what you’ve done. You can’t go anywhere, or say anything. You just have to embrace it.

High school seems like the longest four years of a student’s life. Coming to

A little over three years ago when I found myself entering high school, the spectrum of unique personalities that I encountered completely blew me away. From the laid-back individuals taking each day as it comes, to the close-knit cliques with their life stories posted on Facebook, and even the dedicated scholars, most had an idealistic vision of life after high school. Surrounded by future CEOs, astronauts, and racecar drivers, the class of 2017 seemed destined to go great places.

From the first ever day of Fort Hamilton High School to my senior year, I had changed so much. In the beginning, I was a nervous freshman with no friends and a horrible haircut, but now drama club became my life where I fit in a group crowded with fun broadway lovers, yet I still have a horrible haircut. Going from one year where I was very shy and Regents felt like that one awful friend that I somehow automatic befriended with to a year fill with stresses over college application mixed with comfort thanks to the beloving drama club. The school had shaped me into a person I wouldn't expect to become today and also impacted what I want to do in the future.

For some, high school has given them a life time of memories and lessons. Others can’t wait to break out of their small hometown. The thought of high school gives off a bitter-sweet emotion for us all. With the comfort of familiar people surrounding us, we are asked to take a look into the future. It’s your time to shine. It’s your time to be who you always dreamed of being.

The storm on the horizon for those filled with self-pity and anxiety is just a blip on your radar. The whirlwind of the last 60 school-less days leave your emaciated self begging god for the opportunity to attend high school.

Graduation is an exciting time in a person’s life, especially a high school graduation. When I think of family and friends gathering together to celebrate a joyous occasion, I feel I accomplished my strongest goal. It never occurred to me that graduation would be the end of my youth and the start of adulthood. Graduating from high school was an influential event that gave me an altered outlook on my existence. Life before graduation, preparing for graduation day, and commencement day overwhelmed me for reality.

It was 2016, and I was finally a senior in high school. Being a senior in high school was something that I had dreamed of since my early middle school days, and at last, I was there. It was the last year in one of my least favorite environments, and I couldn’t wait to graduate and move away from the only place I had ever known. I had lived in the same town for seventeen years, and I had gone to the same school with the same people for thirteen years. I was looking forward to something new in my life. I was most excited for my senior year because it was the year that I was going to choose where I wanted to move away to and what school I wanted to spend the next four years of my life at. As the year moved along, I slowly realized that I wasn’t moving away and that I’d be staying home to attend college, which was one of the most difficult decisions that I ever had to make.

This year, is my last year of highschool. For a very long time I have dreamed of being a senior and finally graduating from high school. I remember when I was a child, I wanted nothing more than to be a big, scary Senior. Now that I am this Senior and the end of the line has come, I am not sure how to feel. I expected to feel ecstatic and amazed as to how far I’ve come. I expected to feel empowered and more of an adult with a plan. Truth is, I don’t feel that way. I have, thankfully, a plan for my future, but I don’t feel like being a senior is as big as a deal as I had made it out to be when I was young. As I grew older, I realized that while getting older is fun, the responsibilities that come with it, are not all fun and games. As a senior, I realized that the real journey will begin once I step onto the college campus. Elementary, middle, and high school, are more like stepping stones for what you will become once the parental controls are turned off. That is why it is important, and what I realized a bit too late, to utilize the time you have now.

Almost a year ago I started my first, last day of high school. To some people that may seem like one of the least important days of their life, but for me it made me realize that it was going to be the last year I walked through those doors to attend class, and the last time I stepped out onto the soccer field with my closest friends. As I walked through the double doors that would officially start my last year at USA High School, I looked up and my entire graduating class had their names posted up on the wall, where soon our pennants of the colleges we were going to attend would hang. High school holds some of the happiest memories for some people, from the times they were at Friday night football games with their best friends, or late-night adventures they went on, for me it was being on the soccer team. Throughout my entire high school career, I was happiest out on the field, playing against local schools with the people I have gotten so close to over the years.