After 13 years, I finally did it. I graduated high school. No longer will I need to wake up at six in the morning. No longer will I need a note to walk alone in the hallways. I have my diploma, and I am free. The class of 2016 is free!
If you had asked me how I felt about this on the morning of graduation, I would have said something along the lines of "I've been ready to leave this high school since August 25, 2012" or "I feel like graduation was yesterday, why am I still here?" But if you asked me how I felt about graduating now, I really do not know how to respond.
It's no secret that I have been ready to graduate. If my life were represented as a mountain range, senior year was most definitely the deepest valley so far. I lost an important relationship, friendships I deemed valuable and dealt with probably one of the most stressful workloads that I have ever endured with both advanced classes and college applications.
Senior year, however, was also one of my strongest years. In order to get out of a valley, you have to climb out of it. Most of the time people help pull you up, so the valley seems much more shallow than others, but this time, I had to learn how to climb the mountain of life on my own. It made me a stronger person, student and friend.
It is safe to say, however, that I am still ready to move onto the next chapter of my life. Yesterday morning during graduation practice I whispered to my friend "I don't know half of the people in this room, and if I never saw the other half I think I would be okay" and I totally meant that comment, but as I sat during my graduation ceremony and watched my friends give their valedictorian and salutatorian speeches, I looked around and realized that I really would probably never see 99 percent of my peers again. It finally hit me that I was graduating. I did not cry. In fact, I did not even sniffle, but it was definitely a weird feeling. I now have to leave my comfort zone and submerge myself in a new environment filled with new people in a new place.
It is a wonderful feeling knowing that I will never have to involuntarily return to my high school, but it is still crazy to think how fast these past 13 years of public education have passed.
