The moment is here. That moment that you have been waiting for your entire life, well, at least since you began school at a mere 5 years old. You are graduating! The time has come that YOU can decide what YOU want to do with YOUR life. I’m sure most of you have technically been a legal adult for the last couple of months, but most likely while you were still in high school and living at home with your parents, what they said was the law. I’m sure you have all heard your parents say at least a couple thousand times, “If you are living under my roof, you live by my rules.” But now, you are a legal adult with a high school diploma. First of all, give yourself a round of applause for that accomplishment right now. Not everybody makes it this far in life. Some people drop out of school, others opt to enter the workforce early, and some try as they might, do not succeed.
This is the biggest moment in your life, thus far.
It is a time that you are to be celebrated by your friends and family and praised for your accomplishments. You are going to be taking your first steps into the world, but first, you have to walk across the stage at graduation. Don’t worry it is not as intimidating as you might think. You most likely aren’t going to pull a Lizzie McGuire and fall down. Last year, when I graduated I could not wrap my mind around the fact that it was actually happening until it was over. Like everything in life, you don’t realize what you have until it is gone. I remember thinking that high school was a small step that I had to take to get onto the bigger and better things that I wanted to do. As an old soul, I felt like I was always on a different level than most of the people that I surrounded myself with. I knew that this school of about 2,500 people was only a taste of what else was out there in the world I had yet to experience, and high school was only a fraction of the people I was going to be exposed to throughout my life.
The last day of school felt like any other day. The fact that I was never going to have to walk the halls of Pinnacle High School again hit me finally as we tossed our caps into the air and ran to hug our friends and family. Cherish this feeling because you will not feel this assortment of nostalgia, regret, hopefulness and excitement again for quite some time. You spend your summer with your closest friends, making money before you go off to college and enjoying your last time truly living with your parents. Come August, everything is going to change. You and your friends are going to go off on your own adventures at different schools, but you will keep in contact with the ones that mean the most to you while also meeting new people.
That’s why this year is such a learning experience.
Not only are you graduating from high school but you are going to be starting college, perhaps even in another state, just three months later. That is a lot of change in such a short amount of time. Take it from me, someone who graduated last year and just recently finished their first year of college, things are going to change. Some of the people that were once so relevant in your life are going to grow and change in ways that could differ from you. And what you have to remember is that is OK. You are going to meet new people during your first year at school that you feel like you have known for years. They will become some of your best friends. Better friends than you thought you could ever have. That is one of the best things that I experienced in college. You are going to move away from home and realize that your parents are so bad and that your mom was actually always right. It’s going to be really hard at times, especially at first. College is a lot to handle and you are the one who is responsible for handling it all. You go from being a kid who is forced to go to school every day to someone who has complete control over their own life. Take advantage of this opportunity to start anew and really work on discovering who you are as a person. Meet new people, experience new things and be selfish. Do what is best for you and the rest will come easy. College can be the best thing that has ever happened to you.
