To the Class of 2016,

As we look at our senior countdown board and realize we only have five days left of high school we realize that this is it. It is officially the last week of high school for us. It's been a long time coming but we made it. It feels exciting and bittersweet all at the same time. We have been anxiously waiting for this day for what seems like forever and now that it’s here it almost feels like it came way too fast. This week will be full of exciting things, but also sentimental things too. It will full of lots of smiles and cheering, but also a lot of tears.

Looking at the positive of this week first. For us it’s senior week—a week dedicated to us. It is a week full of pranks and crazy days. This week is the week we waited for our whole high school career. We watched the seniors before us celebrate and now it's our turn. This week is a time of celebration that we finally made it too the end. It’s also the week when we will finally sit in the gross cafeteria for the last time. We will finally say goodbye to waking up at 5 a.m., and also a time to finally say goodbye to doing meaningless school work (well at least until we go to college in the fall). It will finally be our last Monday of high school ever and by the end of the week the last day of high school ever. We're finally going to be able to say that we made it and we should all be super happy about that.

Of course, this week will be full of sentimental and not so happy things too. We will have to say goodbye to some of the best teachers we will ever have. The ones who taught us more than just math and science. We will have to say goodbye to the halls and classrooms were we made some of our most memorable memories with our friends. And of course, we will have to say goodbye to our classmates who have been with us through this entire high school journey. We will have to say goodbye to our best friends. We're going to have to face the fact that we will not be surrounded by the familiar voices and faces that we have been for these past years. We will have to leave behind a place that, though it might not seem like it was all that, we grew up in.

During this last week, we have to know that it’s OK to be both happy and sad. We have to remember to be happy we're done and are finally moving on to bigger and brighter things, but we also have to take time to look back on all the great memories and people we’ve met in the process.