As a second-semester senior, sometimes I don’t even recognize myself. I became a little more okay with the class average grades, missing classes, and barely on-time assignments. It’s hard to reflect on how the girl who used to wake up the house hours early, excited for her first day of school, became the girl that counts down to her last, last day. Was it the eagerness to start summer break or just the exhaustion that comes with going to a competitive public high school? 

Whatever the answer to that question may be, Rock Ridge taught me to push myself beyond the stress of being a student just trying to stay competitive. It gave me my freshman-year biology class and my senior-year journalism class. These classes were both fun and really made me realize what I was passionate about doing with the education I worked hard to receive. I joke around with my friends, saying that I don’t feel like these walls are for me, and I still stand by that – these walls aren’t for anyone; they help people like me find what they want to do and go chase that dream. 

The pandemic snatched the last couple of months of my freshman and sophomore years away. I enjoyed the flexibility that came with doing school online, but didn’t realize how difficult it would be to watch a lot of my friendships with people turn so surface-level. Junior year was a fever dream, watching everyone trying to renormalize the pre-pandemic normal. Getting used to the coursework while balancing my social life was tough. I was always a people person, I used to thrive in group settings, but the pandemic made me a little too comfortable with myself. And I think, in a way, that saved me now. I stopped becoming a people pleaser and started surrounding myself with more people willing to do the same or more for me.

It was easy to get caught up in the pressure to have a thrilling and busy social life and it sometimes sucks to think about how I needed a pandemic to take me off course and get me to realize my biggest priority: myself. 

From high school, I learned that your friends are your home away from home. Going to high school during a pandemic taught me always to make it known that you value and appreciate your friendships; and that includes the relationship you have with yourself.