At this time last year, I was 18-years-old. I was a senior at Warwick High School. My favorite hockey team was playing deep into the playoffs and my life was fantastic. Of course, looking back on it, I didn’t realize how fantastic it was until that one month span of my life was over. I had everything going right and very few things going wrong. Let me tell you a little bit about it.
I was having the best year of High School yet, fitting since it was my last year. My teachers were awesome and I had had many of them before and considered myself friends with a few of them. I was very lucky to be involved with two great programs at our school where we could essentially study under teachers in the school district. I chose my favorite teacher Mr. Hazel in the Middle School and my old German teacher in the High School, Frau Andrews (or Frau as we all called her). My grades were just above average at best but having a serious case of senioritis, I didn’t care. The Tampa Bay Lightning, that favorite hockey team I mentioned above were, in the midst of one of their best seasons in franchise history and gave me something to look forward to every other night from October to June. It was especially fun to give game day predictions to everyone throughout the school who cared to ask me (and a few who didn’t) and they were pretty accurate too. I had no complaints. And that’s the point of what I’m writing here tonight. This is probably one of the best moments of your life, Class of 2016! Do not hesitate to enjoy it!
The other day as I walked out of the local Rec Center and past the High School, I was in the middle of hundreds of students leaving after the school day and it got me thinking about my last month or so at Warwick. It was great and that’s what I want all of you reading this to understand. This is your time, go out there and take it.
Believe it or not, you may just miss High School. Not those long, long days of never ending classes or that one teacher who has it out for you, but perhaps just the feel of it. The feel of seeing your friends and classmates everyday is something you’ve probably grown accustomed to. You will make new friends at college, but you share a unique bond with your friends in High School because you’ve eaten lunch together for years, had classes together for years, or had lockers next to one another for years. It’s just a special kind of feeling that you probably haven’t thought about too much because it’s been that way for your whole life. But that’s about to change. This is in no way meant to make you think you’ll lose your High School buddies; you probably won’t lose them. Social Media can keep you in touch and you are going to have breaks to go home too, so don’t think that you won’t see them ever again. It’s just that they won’t be there at your side anymore, sharing laughs over little bottles of milk or a game of kickball in gym class. Enjoy seeing your friends everyday and try to make the best of your final few weeks.
Another thing you should enjoy is your graduation practices. I know, I know, they can be tedious. You’re sitting there listening to the principal and vice principal and everyone telling you what’s going to happen and they’re making you march in and march out as if you won’t remember how to walk come the night of your graduation. But it doesn’t have to be all bad. For my graduation, I sat with a few of my friends in homeroom. Our graduation was in a church (a very, very big one I might add) so each homeroom got one pew. That also makes the church sound small but do some math. 20 kids per homeroom (roughly) and 350 students in our graduating class, and one pew could hold a whole homeroom in most cases. Anyways, we had a lot of people which meant multiple friends in multiple pews so if you didn’t have friends in your homeroom, you had some sitting nearby in another homeroom. So we could always talk to one another and when we practiced having people walk out on stage and accept their fake diploma, we had a clever chant prepared for them. Some jabs about speeding tickets or just yelling someone’s nickname or something along those lines. Now we were of course smart enough to keep it PG when yelling but it was still fun. You have to make it fun.
And then you get to your graduation and it’s finally your time. It’s finally time to bid farewell to High School. So long because it’s off to the big world and the strange new experience called college. But not so fast, because first it is time for you to enjoy your big night. First of all, be sure to get some yearbook signings, either at graduation or leading up to it. One of my biggest regrets of High School is not getting a yearbook my sophomore year and not getting that many people to sign it my senior year when I did have one. Get your favorite teachers, get your friends, heck, get your friends friend’s if you really want to. Enjoy the day of graduation. The day of my graduation I got my first smartphone. Yes I did wait that long, but that was more my parents and my cell plan than my own choices.
Anyways, besides that I took a nap and then got dressed up real nice, Tampa Bay Lightning tie and all. I took my fair share of pictures with family and then it was time to head back to Calvary (the church) for my graduation. One thing I regret about picture taking though was that I didn’t get any really nice photos with my friends, so you should really consider that. This was it, my big night. Our class president gave an awesome speech and we got our names called and then the really big moment came. It was time for the final countdown and the hat throw. “THREE! TWO! ONE!” And then simultaneously thousands of pictures were taken and hundreds of people were yelling and celebrating. It was so exciting. I, like most people, immediately grabbed my cap. Then I went and found my family to say congrats. At that moment my mom said “Alright well let’s leave so we can seats.” She was talking about going out to eat at a local restaurant. I asked if I could go around for a few more minutes first and take pictures and congratulate my friends. She was wasn’t sure that was the best thing to do since we had time constraints. My brother stepped in and said to her “well this is his night, you should let him go.” And she did.
That is the thing to remember here, Class of 2016, it is your night. Go have fun with friends, take selfies, meet families, do whatever because that is your big moment. After that, do what YOU want to. Whether it’s going out to Buffalo Wild Wings with the guys like I did or whatever you want to do. Now that’s not an excuse to go out and drink or do something stupid. It’s your graduation, but what you do now could affect you for the rest of your life, so while you’re having fun, be sure you’re being a tad bit responsible too.
Above all Class of 2016, what I am telling you is that your graduation is a fantastic moment in your life and you have to enjoy it while you can because it is gone in a flash and when you’re looking back on things in the years to come, you’ll want to remember those final few days as some of the best of your life. Enjoy your graduation, Class of 2016! And congrats on a huge milestone in your life! Have fun, be safe, make your memories.
