As I write this, I'm currently ending the 10th grade and saying goodbye to another year of school. Most people celebrate these events with hanging out with friends or just relaxing by themselves, but every time this time of year comes around, I have this big reflection on how much I've changed.
Quite honestly, I do miss the past.
They say high school is supposed to be the "best four years of your life," and I am well aware how this saying has been shot down by high schoolers all over, stressing and cramming for their exams — definitely not having fun. But personally, I feel that this saying does hold some truth. Perhaps high school isn't the "best time of your life," but it is certainly one to cherish and remember.
Tomorrow, I have exam after exam, and finals slowly creeping behind it. I am stressed, I am extremely tired, but I find that I am also eternally grateful. I have had the opportunity to grow up in a decent area and attend a decent school so I can grow up and be decent too. I have been able to grow up in a stable family environment with both my siblings and strive to become any profession I wanted. I have been lucky. In two years, this will all essentially come crashing down.
I won't live in the same area, I won't go to the same school, and I won't have the same opportunities presented to me in Johns Creek. I'll be packing my room up instead of filling it with study materials in order to move away to an unknown college. The next time I return home, it'll always be with a suitcase.
It's the end of the year that marks being one step closer to that final day where I can stop calling myself a "kid," or a "teen," and realize I'm now an adult. Walking across that stage in gown to shake someones hand and receive a piece of paper is so much more than a "Congratulations! You've finished high school!" To me, it's a passage to becoming fully independent as you begin living away from your home.
Living that far is a hard thing to do at first. So far in my life, I've always had the continuity of being able to come "home." It's all I've known. In two years, I must leave my home, my town, my city and approach the unknown, without my constants of my friends and family.
In two years, I'll be alone.
I feel that life has so many twists and turns, its unpredictable and the only method of surviving is holding on tight. These final years are the last days of being able to go to the same school and live close to my friends, it's the final days of living in my home and being able to eat with my family every night, and the last time I'll ever get to be a kid.
SEE ALSO: Don't let The Nostalgia That Comes With Leaving Home Fade Away
So as I go through high school, sure I'm stressed out, but I also strive to remember the good aspects of it. I urge everyone to go to prom and homecoming, be spontaneous, and get your driver's license. Every year I'm forced to say goodbye to my senior friends, and every year, I'm one step closer in filling their spots.
Every year, I can only hold on a little tighter, and hopefully, enjoy the ride ahead.
