First of all, congratulations.

We have all paid the price of our senior title with tears and stress, but it's been so well worth it. Twelve years in the public school system definitely has its lows, but I was lucky enough to spend half of them with the same group of people.

My school's grade levels go from 6th to 12th, so since 2011 I have started year after year with familiar faces. Sometimes that is frustrating, seeing as everyone gets tired of each other at some point, but ultimately it is rewarding. We got to grow deeper relationships than we would have at a traditional four year high school; we also got more time with one another to spend the last of our childhoods in each other's company. Our small class size has also made it possible to know everyone's name and have the chance to get to know everyone.

So to my fellow classmates of 2017, thank you.

Thank you for coming together when we need it most to collectively agree when a teacher is being ridiculous.

Thank you for the Snapchat updates at 2 a.m. that remind me I am not alone in procrastinating my homework and projects.

Thank you for your excess of school spirit our sophomore year, but an understandable lack of it during junior year because that's when things got real. And thank you for the laughs at the assembly when they asked us if we thought we'd won the spirit stick and we all agreed, with a resounding harmony, "Naaah..."

Thank you for the student-run study sessions and tutoring, because God knows I would've failed chemistry without them.

Thank you for going through the motions with me, for suffering through the past seven years and coming out of it unscathed... mostly.

At every single chorus concert, band concert, art show, dance program, Fine Arts Festival, I am blown away but how incredibly talented we are. How we've grown since the early levels of our fine arts into the students we watched when they were upperclassmen, longing to possess their skill and talent. We did exactly that.

Every single one of my classmates without exception is determined, intelligent, cunning, and brilliant at their art. You all inspire me to be better.

And in any grade there is drama but thank you for knowing when to push past it, to move on, and be the bigger person, because we all have one end goal in mind...

Graduation.

So, to the class of 2017 at DFA, I thank you for the lessons and love. May 30th, 2017 will be our last day together, but you will be in my heart as long as I live. I know I will see all of you go far and be honored to say that I knew you when we were imprisoned together at DFA.

Thank you.

Love,

A Fellow Senior