Lifetime Memories

Hello family, friends, faculty, and most importantly, my fellow graduates.  Although I wasn’t fortunate enough to spend all 14 years of school with you, the memories we made in the time I spent with you are unforgettable. Moving here from Augusta in 4th grade, I was welcomed to Oak Hill with open arms. My first memory of this school system was a friend, who has moved away, showing me around Carrie Ricker. Not knowing what was to come, I took in every piece of information. The most important detail of this I remember is who many people told me to stay away from, and that was Mswan23, who many knew as a bully.  I didn’t stay away, as through the friends I made, we ended up crossing paths. This was fortunate for me, as we became good friends despite our ups and downs throughout high school. A lesson I took away from this was to figure things out for yourself, and not listen to the words of others. Had I listened, I wouldn’t have had that friend.

After this one year at Carrie Ricker, I moved back to Augusta. But one more year later, I came back to spend the rest of my schooling at Oak Hill. My first memory of this new adventure at Oak Hill Middle School is walking past Mr. Taylor’s class while being shown around the school, and seeing PGonya23’s jaw dropping to the floor as she caught a glimpse of me in the hallway. It was nice to know I was remembered and still welcomed after my year hiatus. My favorite memory from my time in middle school was going to the school dances, but not actually dancing and instead playing basketball basically the whole time. Somehow, I managed to get hurt while doing so, and spent hours at the ER one night waiting to get my L-shaped toenail pushed back down into place. The lesson I learned from this you may ask? If you go to something called a “Dance”, maybe you should dance. 

Moving on to high school, I was a scared little 125 pound freshman. Thankfully I quickly adapted to it, with a big thanks to basketball.  It connected me with seniors at the time who I’m still friends with, and helped make me who I am today. Although I have many memories in high school, my favorite was definitely in French one my freshman year. I’m sure KDelano23 knows exactly where I’m going with this. Kyle and I sat next to each other, and there was a certain day that I made a joke, one that won’t be repeated. Kyle, without thinking, called the teacher over and said it to the teacher, not realizing what he was actually saying. Fortunately he didn’t get in trouble, and I say fortunately because I knew the blame would’ve been put on me in a heartbeat. A huge lesson from this, think before you speak. I’m sure me and Kyle both learned this that day. 

Although that is an embarrassing memory for someone else because of me, I have my own embarrassing memory from high school that I remember vividly. Walking into the cafeteria one day, and seeing my old musically videos, which are dance and lip syncing videos, being played. The embarrassment I felt at the time was like falling on my face in front of a big crowd. I tried over and over to log in to the account and get it deleted, but never had any luck. Thankfully these didn’t spread, but as I got older, I realized that this was a funny thing I wanted people to see. For that reason, I was extremely upset writing this, finding that old account to be deleted. But don’t worry, I have one of the videos saved. What did I learn from this? Embrace who you are, and cherish memories and moments, you may never know when they could disappear. 

I would like to take one final moment to congratulate my classmates on making it this far, and offer further congratulations on the great things you will soon accomplish. And finally, thank you to the staff, families, coaches and anyone else for getting us where we are today, we couldn’t do it without you.

Featured Image: “congratulations” by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0.