Your senior year of high school is full of lasts: Your last time at a football game, your last time eating lunch in the cafeteria, your last yearbook-- and it can seem overwhelming and scary. But as anyone who was part of a team in high school knows, the most bittersweet "last" is the last time you compete with your team.

You've felt it a million times before: The rush of adrenaline before you take the field, the stage, or the floor. The roar of the crowd drowning out every other noise, the look of "we got this" you give your teammates, the final words of encouragement from your coach. You've felt it so many times before that you never believe there will be a last time. But then it comes and goes and you stop dead in your tracks. It's over. After years of training, countless hours of practice, and all the sweat your body could produce, it's done.

They say "perform every time like it's your last," but you never truly understand that statement until it is your last. You've run through that routine a hundred times over. You've cried at practice. You've gone home beaten and possibly broken. But at the same time, you never wanted it to end. As many times as you said "I'm done. I can't do it anymore," you never really wanted it to be all over. When you have your team at your side for the last time and you're breathing hard and moving as one unit, you finally understand what it means to perform as if it's your last time. You leave your all out on that floor.

When the competition is done and the medals are handed out and the photos are taken and the tears have been cried, you feel something that you haven't felt in a long time. Relief. You never wanted it to be over, but you're glad it is. You no longer have to wake up early or stay at practice late. You never have to remember another routine or play again. And there will always be a part of you that misses the pressure and the adrenaline and the stress, but you are on to bigger and better things.

As you walk away from your high school sport, you see why it was so easy for all the seniors before you to do the same. The time was right. You had your moment in the spotlight, but now it's time to move on and let the freshmen do the thing that you committed your life to for four years.

So as you walk away from your team, from your sport, from the hours of brutal practice and "one more time," remember why you started in the first place and use that passion and excitement to go forward. As you walk away from your high school team, know that you have a forever bond with your teammates. As you walk away from your sport, know that it made you into the person that is able to walk away and move on with life. Congratulations and good luck!