Dear Underclassmen,

They tell you high school will fly and man are they right. It feels like just yesterday my nervous fourteen year old self walked through those doors. It's finally your turn, your turn to get your drivers license, your turn to go to formal, and of course your turn to stand in the student section (the back...of course). Be smart and make the most of it. You only go through high school once.

I start my senior year of high school in a month, I have to decide where I want to go to college in five months, and somehow manage to talk myself up and live away from my parents in twelve. In fact, typing those words feels absolutely crazy. There's no way I'm going to be ready to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life in a few short months. But guess what, life is fast, high school is fast, and it sure doesn't stop and wait for you to catch up. So while you're there, take it all in, because before you know it, you'll be shutting your locker for the last time, skipping class for the last time, and eating lunch with the same kids since freshman year for the very last time.

With high school, comes so many opportunities. I challenge you to take every single one of them. Personally, I would consider myself as an outgoing person or as some would say a social butterfly, which made it a little easier for me to get involved. However, if you're the opposite of me, that's perfectly okay. I challenge you to take a step out of your comfort zone and get involved. If you want to make the most out of high school, or anything for that matter, you must get involved. There will be so many clubs, extracurriculars, community service, and so on to help you take that jump. Take that big step and be everything you ever wanted to be.

Within a blink of an eye, you'll be starting sophomore year, and even quicker then the year before, you'll be a junior. Time has flown by so quick, it feels like I'm dreaming and when I wake up I should still be a freshman in high school. The one thing to always remember is to slow down and look around. Who are you with? Where are you at? What are you doing? We attend all these events, play all these volleyball games, and present all these group projects (group projects, I know). But, we manage to do all these activities and never stop for just a minute and truly take the moment in. Ten years from now, you're going to look back on high school and wish you could ride the bus to an away game with your teammates, cheer on the boys under the Friday night lights, and eat your favorite lunch in the cafeteria just one more time.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you high school is going to be the best years of your life because, well because we're teenagers and we have so much more life to live. I have not yet experienced anything past high school to say when the best years of my life are going to be. But, I can confidently say so far, high school has been the best years of my life and if I could go back and change anything, I wouldn't. I have made the greatest friendships, experienced lessons that made me grow as an individual, given the opportunity to hold memories that I will cherish forever, and further my relationship with the Lord. I pray that each and every one of you gain the experience you want out of high school and take it all in. In no time, you'll be just like me, saying goodbye to people you walked through your beginning years of life with.

It will be here before you know it,

A Senior