I can’t believe we are actually standing here today. The memories we’ve made and the experiences we’ve lived through are flashing before my eyes. 

I know that this school has completely changed me, hopefully for the better. I couldn’t even describe the number of moments and encounters that have altered my being forever. Most of them were situations that I didn’t realize had changed me until months later. And isn’t that what life truly is? A collection of tiny moments that have built who you are. To think that the fourteen-year-olds who walked into high school four years ago are now eighteen, about to begin adulthood, is unimaginable, but here we are anyway. We have accomplished what, if I’m being honest, I didn’t think was possible; we grew up. We have become the seniors we always wanted to be, and I don’t know about you, but the feeling is quite surreal. 

It was just yesterday that it was the last first day of school. It was just yesterday that I had my last first week of school. My last first quarter, and then second, and then third. And all of a sudden, I had my last, last day of school. I will always wonder where all the time went. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I will never get that time back, but I also will never forget it either. These years will stay close to my heart for many years to come.

Every high school TV show or movie that ends with a graduation always has a sense of finality to it. You could tell their story was over. They’d grown up. However, I don’t feel that way at all. I am still fourteen-year-old me, and fifteen, and sixteen. But I’m also not. I’m also eighteen-year-old me, and that is a lot to reckon with.

I could not be more excited to start the next leg of my journey, but I could also not be more scared. The unknown is exhilaratingly terrifying. I can’t wait.

I have only been a part of newspaper for one year, but I have made so many memories in the process. I’ve spent nights on desktops painfully adjusting spreads for the newsmag or laughing about something Mr. Anderson had said. I’ve wandered the hallways with my favorite people while we were supposed to be getting work done. I’ve sat in a mostly peaceful classroom and read a book. That is what newspaper has been for me. A space to be myself with my friends, and I could not be more grateful for that opportunity.

So much of senior year has flashed before my eyes. College essays became end of year projects before I knew it, and now we are leaving. I cannot wait to see what becomes of all my classmates. Who and what they will become, because I know it will be amazing.

I cannot wait to meet twenty-five year old me and eventually thirty year old me. I wonder what she will think of herself then, and I hope she will hold her eighteen year old self close. Because she needs it.