Woah.

It truly feels like someone pressed the fast forward button on the first day of freshman year when we were sitting in the auditorium thinking we were the coolest kids ever because we were finally at DGS. As usual – we were wrong.

People say high school is something they will not look back on with positive memories to reminisce. All of their memories are filled with struggle, mean teachers, drama and lost friends.

High school disappointed a lot of people.

High school didn’t disappoint me because I didn’t allow it to.

From losing the friends I had in eighth grade, I was able to gain some that I know I will never get rid of. High school was a true test of my friendships. Some people failed, but I love the people who didn’t more because of it.

I made connections with my teachers and allowed myself to be comfortable in their classrooms. Although Trevor Parker, the English teacher, is definitely my main guy–every teacher has something to offer and none of them are all that bad–unless you’re just plain annoying.

For lunch junior year, I ate in the Blueprint room also known as my home. Sophomore year I took Journalistic Expression and somehow a year later I was on the Blueprint staff and a state qualifier in review writing and a small piece of the 2018 State Journalism Championship team.

That’s still pretty crazy to type.

Freshman year I would have never thought by senior year I would be able to call myself a speech kid. Now I am a speech kid. And I love the title.

I stopped playing sports freshman year and became engulfed in the newspaper, speech, student council, Mustang Way leaders, too many clubs, English peer tutors, snowball and more. Dropping something I loved allowed me to find parts of myself that could have never been revealed otherwise.

I look a lot different than I did freshman year too. I would never wear those outfits again, half of my hair is gone, I wear a septum piercing, I have nine pairs of vans, I wear fake retro glasses and I wear way too many colors so I can let my inner spiritual hippie out.

If freshman year me saw me now, she would be scared.

To me, that’s what high school is about. High school is about growing and becoming a new you that is more mature. Hopefully has gained some knowledge about what you love. It’s about looking back at the past four years and understanding it maybe didn’t go how you wanted it to, but it went anyways.

And now here we are.

Walking around the hallways with people we have known since third grade, some of us looking 30 and some of us ready to get out of here. Either way, we all have one year left and it’s going to go by quicker than how it came.

This is not going to be the cheesy “make the most of every moment” message because that’s overplayed and makes everyone look the other way.

Do your thing.

Just do it. If you want to study extra hard for that AP Gov test, do it. If you want to get Dunkin every morning because you feel cool carrying it, do it. If you don’t want to go to any sporting event this whole year and just go home to sleep and watch Coco, do that.

Just because it is your senior year, that does not mean you have to do everything everyone else is doing. You do not have to subject yourself to getting out of the house to go to a party when you really want to stay home and eat pizza with a few friends.

This is your last year with these people. Create memories that you will look back on in the future that will put a smile on your face. Do things you would have never done and try things you are still scared to try.

At the end of the day, this is your last year with those old eighth grade friends. This is your last year to go to those annoying, loud football games. This is your last year to see those DGS jersey numbers under the lights.

Personally, I am going to make sure this year is great under my own circumstances. I am going to spend a lot of Sundays at Starbucks for 10 hours because it makes me feel productive. I am going to work harder than ever for both the Blueprint and speech.

I am going to make this senior year a year for me to grow even more and create unforgettable memories with great people. I am going to stay up until 3 am practicing speeches. I am going to goof around in class and cry over articles not going how I want them to.

I am going to wear outfits that maybe don’t match but are cute because I say they are. I am going to buy even more fake glasses. I am going to be way too loud at basketball games.

I am going to make this year MY year.

What are you going to do?