I was a senior in high school less than a year ago. I felt every emotion there was to feel in the months leading up to graduation: from happily taking Instagram-worthy pictures to sobbing in Student Activities with my squad while blasting our song. I walked across that stage and received my diploma, tears and all, and only looked back to reminisce on all the amazing times I had. But today, less than four months from the graduation of my friends and former classmates, my heart hurts. It doesn't ache because of what I went through, but for the ones who will experience it now.
Senior year is hard! It is not a walk in the park like we may have played it out to be last year. Finishing college applications, taking tours, and finally choosing a university is not an easy feat. It's been a struggle, but you did it, and if you haven't you will soon, so stop stressing about it. You're also battling senioritis, because how could your teachers expect you to do homework when you're less than one hundred days from graduating? Ridiculous, I know.
Between the last football game, pep assembly, homecoming dance, spirit week, and dodgeball tournament, you're also struggling to cram every possible event into your schedule because this is the final time you'll have the opportunity to volunteer at the blood drive or go to that meet. It's bittersweet because all the focus is on you, but you know you'll soon be replaced. You love it though. This has been your life for four years, after all.
Right now, it's February. Your last semester of high school is in full swing and winter events are filling up your planner. However, you still have a few months to go until the idea of graduating gets real. It's going to come so fast.
My heart aches for you during the month of May. This is where thirty weeks until graduation quickly becomes three weeks, and then three days, until you're sitting in your gym, wearing your cap and gown, listening to your principal tell you when to stand up and sit down for your graduation ceremony. It all happened so fast. You are not ready for it. This is why my heart hurts for you.
It doesn't get real until after your senior send-off. Whatever your school does, it's all the same. After walking around your halls, the halls you've walked a thousand times, with every teacher who believed in you and every teammate who looked up to you and every student who wishes they were you cheering for you, it's all over. You have to walk out of those doors and never return as a student. This may sound exciting but trust me, you'll want to look back and run back in, but you can't.
My heart aches for every high school student because you, like me, will soon have to say goodbye to the place that built you. Whether you loved high school like I did or not, it had a significant impact on you and you can't deny it. So take all the pictures you want, attend every single event you can, say yes to being involved, and enjoy the ride ahead of you. And please, do not wish this time away. I tried that. You'll regret it.
You may not know it now, but you really will miss this. Every second of it. And though life gets better when you graduate, it will never quite be how sweet it was in high school. You'll go through pictures and smile at all the good times, so take a good look now and thank these people for being apart of your life and making you who you are today.
Because who cares what happens when you get there, when the getting there has been so much fun?
