The time has come, You're embarking on your last trimester of your final year in high school. The past 12 years have led up to these moments, the senior slide is starting to feel all too real. Soon your robe will be delivered, your teacher will explain the importance of finishing strong. Your mom will start to care a little bit more about your curfew, realizing she only has a matter of months before you are off on your next adventure, college.

You might have realized by now that what lies ahead is inevitable, the future is starting to become present. I remember looking at the outline of my senior year as a wide-eyed, eager junior. I was so ready to be done with required classes and just have a full schedule of classes I handpicked. In a way I think that is where I went wrong, instead of going into senior year with a mind ready to learn, I went in with a mind ready to slide.

So what can you do to make this last trimester the best one yet? GO to all of the sporting events, GO to prom, GO on an adventure to someplace you’ve never been before. When I say go to all the sporting events I mean instead of spending a night causing trouble with your friends, go support your fellow peers. When I say go to prom I mean GO TO PROM, you may think it’s stupid right now, but that is one of those nights that will stick with you for years to come. When I say go to on an adventure I mean find an awesome place you have never been before and go, take some friends with and make a memory.

I can’t stress enough how much you will miss having the kind of freedom where you don’t have to worry about student loans, harder classes, and living in a confined space with another person. Enjoy your high school moments, even the ones that you’d much rather forget. Be okay with your mom asking if you finished all your school work, because it may annoy you right now, but soon you won’t even see your mom for weeks or months at a time. Be okay with being forced to go to pep rallies, they may seem pointless to you right now, but just remember when that last pep rally hits, careless freedom is coming to a halt.

Be okay with your teachers playing non-class related movies, because come time for college, the only movies you will be seeing are the ones that will have made you wish you would have stayed in bed instead of going to class. Be okay with staying up a little past normal to finish your assignments, because in college there will be many times you pull all-nighters in a row because you have back to back exams. Be okay with having teachers getting on your case for having missing work, because in college, professors will not seek you out and in most cases you will not be given the option to make up assignments, quizzes, or tests.

Use your last trimester to choose to be a person who is self-aware of the fact that these last three months are the last time you will see some of these people. Even though you are not fond of a good fraction of those people, choose the high road. At the end of the day, your class gets to choose what legacy you wish to leave for next years seniors to pick up. You get to choose whether you want to teach the young people of the community who are looking up to you how to be a people of intelligence or a people of ignorance.

If you have unresolved conflict with someone, fix it before it’s too late. If you see that kid sitting alone at a lunch table, go sit with him, you might just give him the encouragement he needs. If you see that janitor that everyone makes fun of because they think he/she is scary, say thank you for all they do and the little to no recognition they receive. Tell your parents thank you, that you love and appreciate them. The two words "Thank you" are two of the most important words you could say, but aren't said nearly as much as they should. Choose to be an encourager and not a degrader, your words have more power than you know.

Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” If you wish to see a positive change made, you should be asking what you can do to get yourselves there. You will face situations that will be fearful in the next few months in light of this new journey, but let that not hinder you from pressing forward to the things that are truly important. After this year everything changes. All the Friday night football games, long tournament weekends, pep fests, band and choir concerts are over. But the legacies you left on that field or in that theater will live on.

Growing up isn’t easy, it’s about experiencing the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s about developing life skills, learning valuable lessons from your yourself and others. Some of you will choose a path that will take you clear across the state, country or even world. But whether life takes you 10 miles or 10,000 miles from where you are today you have the power to leave a lasting legacy wherever you go. So as you enter into this final hurrah, as they say, focus on making these last month's count. I promise one day sooner or later you will look back and wish you could go back to the good ole’ high school days.

A high school grad,

Hannah Beckman