People always have a highlight of their lives where the grass was greener than they could imagine. No matter how life might put us down or leave us in tough situations, there is always a time that we look back on and smile because we know that in that moment, nothing and nobody could bring us down. My moment was and always will be my senior year of high school. My senior year was everything I wanted it to be and more; nothing was off limits. I could do whatever and be whoever I wanted to be because it was about living for the now.

Being that it was finally 2015, I was very bittersweet about it. The last three years had been filled with ups and downs, and I had learned how to be accountable for all of my actions, both good and bad. I am happy to say that I had the opportunity to be a part of a lot of different organizations. I was involved in more than six groups with leadership roles, such as being SGA president and the Voice of the Purple Tigers, which meant that I did the morning and the afternoon announcements over the intercom. The downside was that I was initially unable to fully commit myself to one organization. For example, during football games, I was not able to fulfill my Color Guard Commander position because I was in the band. I learned that it is impossible to be everywhere at one time because it becomes very overwhelming. For instance, on Tuesday mornings, I would have to spend 15 minutes in my SGA meeting and the next fifteen minutes in my National BETA Club meetings. However, I would not change a thing because there were more upsides than downsides, such as being able to attend all of the sporting events for free.

Although my senior year was filled with adventurous moments and fun-filled events, the most influential moment was when I was asked to speak at my high school graduation ceremony. Time stopped and the spotlight of the world was put on me. What astonished me the most was that my senior counselor, Mrs. Tonia Miller, trusted me with such a big task. I have never been the type to back down from a challenge, so I was all for it. To say I was excited was an understatement. I had spoken at many different functions in school, but none of them compared to the commencement exercises for the Class of 2015 on May 23, 2015.

I practiced day and night to ensure that what I was saying made sense and spoke to the right audience. I had other teachers and staff at school look over it. I said it to them just as I would say it at the graduation ceremony because everything had to be perfect. To be honest, I think I practiced it so much that I may still remember it by heart in its entirety. I don’t know whether I was nervous or if I was just looking for perfection, but I refused to go one day leading up to graduation without practicing the speech; it became a daily routine, but I wasn’t complaining because there was no room for error in what I was doing.

Before I could even imagine, the special day was here, and it came faster than expected. I had prepared over and over again, but the time and effort that I had put into the speech still didn’t seem like enough. Being nervous was something that I expected to be natural, but this wasn’t nervousness that I was feeling - it was pure fear. My whole life was full of potential scares that I had to overcome, but speaking in front of all of those people brought actual tears to my eyes because I had never imagined that they would all have to listen to me. The moment was near, the time was winding down, and before I knew it they were calling me up for the Words of Wisdom.

I stood from my seat, walked to the podium, and faced my fears. As the words started to flow from my mouth, I had never thought that by the end of the speech, I would have a standing ovation. The crowd’s response was all of the assurance I needed to know that my job at Bessemer City High School had come to an end and it was time for me to move on to bigger and better things. All of the overwhelming days and homework-packed nights was all worth the stress in the end. I will always stand firmly on this quote: “Time stops for no one.” It will forever keep moving right along and it is up to us to catch up with the pace or get left behind with the rest. Live with no regrets, carry on through the bad times, and make time for what’s important.