In high school, identity is everything. What sports you play, clothes you wear, groups you’re involved in, and friends you have determine everyone’s perception of you. For me, I am probably looked at as the basketball player who is involved with the senior class. What people do not know is that, although I am so at home on the basketball court, I am as comfortable holding a guitar. Most people are really confused when they hear that I play the guitar, and I can’t fault them for being a little shocked, after my identity around the school has been built up for so long. It is hard to believe for most people that strumming a couple chords is my stress reliever, like shooting some baskets in an empty gym. High school is weird like that. Everyone is expected to stick to their realm, their specific friend group, whether their activity be football, theater, robotics team, science olympiad, or sleeping in the back of class. Somewhere, sometime down the line we decided that whatever you do in your first couple years of high school cements your place in the social workings of FHC.

By the time I got to senior year, I realized that things were actually different. People are multi-faceted. Sam Morse is in student council, plays lacrosse, and has an amazing singing voice (as seniors heard at the Senior Retreat bonfire). Emily Laage runs, plays basketball, and also manages to be an incredible artist and one of the brightest kids in the senior class. David Mainero wrestles, is in theater, and is definitely the funniest human I know. These people, like myself, have attempted to diversify their high school experience and not make it about sticking in one box.

It sounds cliche, but maybe that is what senior year is all about. We go through the first few years of high school just attempting to somehow fit in among the fray of crowded hallways and awkward school dances. We seek the comfort of one group, one team, or one club. We stick to those friends and those surroundings because they provide some shelter, and our 15 and 16 year old selves need that; but, when senior year rolls around, I am not sure what happens, but something truly does change. Maybe something triggers in our old age of 18, or we realize that only talking to four kids and participating in one activity gets boring after three years. What really happens is that we realize that our time together is fleeting. If we only have a few more months together, why not talk to the one guy who has been sitting behind you in class for two years, or try out for the improv team even though theater is not your thing? In senior year, our focus shifts from survival to capitalizing on every opportunity that we have left.

As for me, with my guitar-playing basketball shooting combo, it is refreshing to have a change of pace and a shift in identity. Recently, someone commented on an Instagram picture of myself saying “You have officially made yourself the Troy Bolten of FHC,” but I don’t think I am Troy Bolton. For one, I don’t have Zac Efron’s luscious flow and good looks. And secondly, who knows? My identity might still be changing.