With less than than three months away, we graduate. We venture off to pursue our own futures and the excitement level is off the roof. Everybody talks about how easy senior year is, but honestly it hasn't been.
Most of us are 18 years old and we have to make decisions that follow us for the rest of our lives. Honestly, senior year is by far the most stressful year of high school that I have had. Yes, it's so exciting to be finally getting out of the school and town I've been in forever, but other things to think about are how life changing college is. I'm now leaving my comfort zone, my high school friends, my favorite teachers, my family, and most importantly my bed. Nothing is better than being able to come home from a stressful day, plop on my bed, and dig my head into my favorite pillow. Sure, this might be one of the most common struggle that seniors go through, but there is so much more that leads up to it.
In the beginning of senior year, I had the best mentality going in. I wanted to make the best of it by being as active as I could. I thought senior year was going to be a breeze, but boy was I wrong. It's more of a hurricane with wind gusts going 50 mph with tree branches hitting you every step of the way. Oh and don't forget the emotional roller coaster that goes on.
From entering high school and getting ready to leave, the amount of friends by my side decreased and that's perfectly okay. I knew who really wanted to be my friend and who was just there to try and bring me down. This year, I really saw the true colors of some of my fake friends and what they do. They enjoyed making fun of others and thought they got something out of being mean. They brought so much drama into my life for no reason and overtime I let it get to me. If there's one thing I took out of the stress of fake friends, it's that killing them with kindness was always the solution. Being genuinely nice isn't hard and there is no need for negativity. I knew who my real friends were and that's all that mattered.
Another reason why senior year was a lot to handle was extra-curricular activities. I play sports all year long and the amount of pressure between school and extra-curricular activities made me think that one day I'm just going to blow up and let everything loose. After a day of failing that summer reading test that I actually attempted studying for (by at least writing out flashcards), starring at my college application while my mom is nagging at me everyday because I didn't finish it, and having to go outside at six o'clock at night to play soccer in 89 degree weather on turf (which makes it 20 degrees hotter) and having to do sprints because somebody left the pinnie bag out the day before might have pushed me to the edge of my sanity. Being able to keep everything in is hard. I may have yelled at a freshman and said it nastier than I thought it was because of everything that has been building up, but then I realized it's not the freshman I needed to be mad at, it was myself.
Senior year is beyond stressful, but what I learned from it was that no matter what was going on in my life always know what really matters. To me, it was my family and my true friends. I am beyond thankful for the way that my parents raised me and sometimes I don't say it enough. For my friends, I am forever grateful to have them to graduate with. They are the ones that stuck through all my panic attacks, college drama, and all of my stupid nonsense. Honestly, I'm thankful that my senior year is as hard as it is because it helped me find myself.Through hard obstacles I was able to push through and turn negative situations into positive ones.
