WE’RE ALMOST THERE

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The time is continually slipping away as the clock completes yet another twenty-four hour cycle.

103 days left. 103 days left of walking the halls of Powell High School. Sitting in the student section at basketball games. Staring into space in a classroom and only thinking about one thing: Graduation.

High school graduation is a moment everyone has been dreaming of since they began school. Everyone wants to wear the cap and gown and walk across the stage and receive their diploma. Everything we work for our entire school careers leads up to this infamous moment. 

Almost everyone talks about graduation, but few people talk about the moments leading up to graduation. Let’s talk about all of the moments. The good and the bad. The memories, the disappointments and the rejection from either scholarships or dream schools. 

When I walked out of the high school my junior year, I felt an edge of excitement. “Whoa. I’m a senior now.” It was truly a surreal moment. I remember jaunting out the back doors towards my car feeling as if I was on top of the world. One more year left. 

I was truly ready to be done with high school. And don’t get me wrong – I still am ready to be done. I can’t wait to walk across that stage and not have to go back to high school ever again. However, I realized that this is a crucial time in my life. A core memory if you will. I’ve decided to relish and savor every moment even when I don’t want to, which is most of the time. 

Senior year is full of lasts. Your last sports season. Your last band or choir concert. Your last play or musical. Your last final. Although we may think these lasts will be easy to let go of, sometimes they’re not. It’s okay to be sad during your last football or basketball game. You can be sad during your last concert. You can be sad at graduation. Your sadness doesn’t prohibit you from experiencing joy in these significant moments. Feeling those memories and that sadness is perfectly okay. It’s like coming to the end of a really good book. Senior year is the final chapter. As each day comes to an end, the pages keep dwindling down, one by one.

Although senior year is full of laughter and memories, it is also full of long nights filling out scholarships and studying. Finding a balance between school, work, planning your future and social life is an ongoing intense struggle for seniors. In the end, it comes down to the fact of where your priorities are and how well you can manage your time.

But, let’s talk about the importance of giving yourself grace and allowing yourself to take a break. You are only going to be a senior in high school once in your life so cherish it. Instead of studying all night and downing Red Bulls before a test, go to bed and go into the test with more sleep. I promise you the latter is the better option.

Not receiving the scholarship you wanted or not getting into your dream school is not the end of the world. If your path leads to a dead end, you were meant to travel on a different path. By no means am I saying that it will be easy. Rejection is one of the hardest parts of life, but rejection doesn’t just close doors. It opens them. Instead of fixating on one door take a look around you. There are many other doors to go through. 

I’m asking my fellow seniors to embrace senior year and all it offers to us. Welcome failure and celebrate your accomplishments. And remember, in just a few months we’ll be walking across that stage in front of all our family and friends. This chapter of our lives is ending, but a new one is just beginning.