For every year, every decade, every lifetime, there are seasons and patterns of life.

For the senior class, we’re itching to go beyond the walls of the high school, patiently waiting for that wave of independence to wash over us and release us from the confinement. As spring and soon summer approach, we are in a stage of rebirth, in a sense, shedding our everyday high school wear to don a graduation cap and gown and receive a second chance of sorts as college quickly gets closer day by day. From our teenaged years to adulthood, from seasoned pros to unknowing students who are eager to learn more, from being around childhood friends to being relatively alone in an unfamiliar setting.

While our wintertime was spent with us dwelling in the hardships and fears we inevitably face while contemplating the somewhat fearsome freedom, the springtime will be ushering in a renewed sense of peace and contentment. The history that has followed us for the last three years or maybe even our whole lives is erased for a clean slate, a slate of hope and rebirth.

Last Tuesday, the school was abuzz. Kids hustled from classroom to classroom, eager to schedule in the most intriguing classes and perfect their future school year. While it was heartening to see the TCT classroom bustling with prospective students, the flip-side to that coin is knowing that we will not be there to guide these fresh-faced kids and show them the ropes. That is a task that no longer rests on us.

Freshmen are reborn as sophomores in the same way that juniors are reborn in the role of being seniors. Watching every class step up to the plate, with confidence, reassurance, and pride in who they are and the community they are a part of is, quite simply, beautiful. This springtime is a time of rebirth and new beginnings.

For me, theater season always marks the turning of a season, perfectly transitioning people from the dreary winter to the uplifting spring. And in less than a week, all that theater people in the musical slaved and labored over will be reaching its final stages, beckoning in a feeling of both overwhelming joy and blissful sadness at the thought of saying goodbye to an incredible theater season together. The second the cast and crew hit the stage, in full costume on opening night, is when the tone of the year starts to change, rejuvenating the people stuck in the slump of boredom and exhaustion.

It was hard to watch as we gradually are taking off the shoes of leadership and responsibility and hanging them up for the class following our own. Though it may seem like big shoes to fill, it is merely an opportunity to make an impact on the school that we’ve called our own for these many years.

I really did not mean for this to be a sob story of me leaving the greatest time of my life because in reality, while these have been some amazing years, I know it is time to move on. This is our time for our final words and last hurrahs are in the near future, whether it be the spring sports that start on next Monday, final awards from programs and clubs, or last competitions, and then, who knows?

However, regardless of what is being held in store for the senior class as they walk the hallways for some of their last times, the season of spring is for new beginnings, starting now. This is the time for change; this is the time or each class to step up, in maturity, in kindness, in responsibility, and in pride for our school. We are on the cusp of something so incredible, and I’m so proud to have been a Ranger for these past thirteen years.

FHC is where leaders, innovators, artists, performers, and many more are molded; it’s where we’ve grown into who we are, taking us further than even high school and revealing to us what the possibilities for the future are.

And more than any other season, spring is the time where the true light and goodness are revealed.