Alexa Varela-Escobar: Swan Song

Alexa Varela-Escobar, Staff Writer

How am I supposed to tell you about high school? Well, I will say there is a lot of uncertainty, change, ups and downs, and bringing it around town. 

It all started when I was in middle school. Every year, the talk:  how is high school gonna work, look at how old we are getting, we’ve got plenty of time. You hear that until you reach 8th grade, until “oh crap, I’m at the end of middle school.” Both of my parents didn’t know much about high school in America, so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, and neither did my parents. Next thing you know, I started hearing the word everyone is afraid of: college.

I started hearing more words I’d never heard of before: DE Classes, AP Classes. Somehow, people are in more advanced classes than you. It just didn’t seem right. Then, everything came faster and I started to panic: college was right around the corner, and the more I thought about it, the more I freaked. When you really think about it, four years passes by quickly. 

And in a blink of an eye, I’m already in my senior year, still shocked by the fact that I’m entering college. I finally settled on my decision to become a radiologist, but I don’t know if that is where my heart is set in stone. Am I doing it because I really want to, or the fact that I know I’ll end up with a fat check in the future? The thing I’m trying to say is, I’m still uncertain, and that’s okay! Not everyone has it figured out, and you don’t have to freak out. People have told me that you start one path and end up actually falling in love with a path you would’ve never known. With that knowledge in my noggin, I calm down, because at the right time, the right plan will hit me and I will find something I want to do long term.

So at the end of the day, don’t panic about what’s going to happen. Don’t freak out because your plan doesn’t work the way you want it to, because at some point, a sign will hit you in the face and make you realize the thing that overthinking never could have let you think.