The long journey

The beginning of 9th grade. I transitioned from a middle school student into a high school student. Starting high school is like starting over again. We go from being on the top of the food chain as an 8th grader to the bottom of the chain. Unfortunately, me and my classmates didn’t get to experience a normal high school experience with COVID. We had to have online courses and were only able to come to school on certain days. Now that I’m a senior I look back and see that high school is a roller coaster of emotions. Between stress, madness, and sadness all in one from school work and sports and or work. Looking back I can not only see how the school itself has changed but how I have changed too. Before high school, I was more socially focused and outspoken. For example, I would worry about having conversations instead of working on the assignments that I had, which did not help my grade. Throughout the years I became more future-focused where school and work became my priorities. And my social scene became less important. Now in school, I’m more focused on my schoolwork and not conversing. I learned that I don’t need a lot of friends to be content. So I found my handful of friends like Samantha and Chloe that have stuck with me throughout the years and stayed with them. 

 Middle school and high school have some things in common like having those cliques of students. For example the football team or the “nerds”. While in high school I think people are a lot more accepted to be who they are. As I look into my future I look back at the lessons that I have learned from school.  A big one that I had to learn was that I need to do what I want to do, not what others expect or want from me. For example, I was at Lewiston Regional Technical Center for Culinary Arts. Even though it wasn’t my thing I stuck with it because I thought that’s what my family wanted from me. But I knew that If I didn’t take the initiative to do what I wanted to do I would always be a people pleaser. So, I switched to welding. Shockingly, my family wasn’t that mad or surprised that I did. Even though it’s not something I see myself doing for the rest of my life I am so glad that I took it to learn something new and found a hobby that I like doing. I have also learned that sleep is overrated, that energy drinks are a great thing that has been invented, and that high schoolers are more resilient than a lot of people think. Between school and work or sports for others, I believe that high schoolers are strong as a rhino. Rhinos are like high schoolers because they symbolize being strong, resilient, and grounded. They don’t give up just like high schoolers can’t.

In conclusion, even though I’ve had many struggles throughout the years I am glad that I never gave up and pushed through. Even though I am scared to be out of school I am glad that this chapter has come to an end and I’ll be starting a chapter in my book.

“The Graduates” by Game of EPL5 & LUMIX G20/F1.7 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.