Class of 2015—can you believe that it has been four years since we were seniors in high school? It takes four years to go through high school, which seems like a considerable amount of time when you are a freshman but actually goes by in a blink of an eye. Now, it seems that time goes by even quicker once you are out of school, and this is for the class of 2015 because we're growing up in this crazy big world we live in.
Maybe you were so excited to leave your hometown school and take on the world, or maybe you were also scared about the idea of being an adult and the future ahead of you. Well, like it or not, we've grown past the stages of high school and are well on our way to being full-fledged adults. Many members of the class of 2015 will be graduating college this May, but after being away from high school for the past few years, I've realized one thing: we may come from the same alma mater, but in the end, our future is our choice and don't ever forget that. Our paths and decisions are entirely different than others, I know for me I took an unconventional route when I took a year off of my college education to spend a year of my life experiencing once in a lifetime opportunities. So as I watch many of my high school classmates in their senior year of college as they approach graduation, I can't help but recognize how similar and different we all after we went our separate ways.
The scariest but most exciting thing about graduating from high school is you have the freedom to choose what path you are going to go on. Whether you want to go to college, go through a certificate program, enlist in the military, or go right into the workforce, you have so many options to choose from. The path you were on before was pretty similar to other classmates around you, and you don't have as many choices of what you want to do. When you graduate, you find out so much more about yourself than ever before. I've seen so many of my classmates go down different paths to help fulfill their goals in life. Now being four years removed from school, it has been an odd feeling seeing people get engaged and married, have babies, or still act like they're eighteen-years-old.
Class of 2015, we're in this awkward phase of our lives where some people are already settling down and looking like adults while some never seem to age at all.
I think that is the weirded part of adulthood, seeing how people are living their lives differently compared to you and others.
We have gone from spending practically every day in the same building to never seeing people again after graduation. Whether you came from a large high school where you didn't know many people or you grew up attending a small school, your time walking those halls was fundamental to your growth and who you are today, even if you still didn't see the value in some of your classes. Here's hoping that you didn't peak in high school and that there is so much left to come for you. You ended your high school career with a valedictorian speech where they probably quoted Merriam Webster about what success is or how glad people are to be leaving, but no matter where you go or do, we will always be the class of 2015.