11.

11 houses I have called home.

There have been almost one dozen houses that at one point in time held both me and everything I considered important. Within each of these homes, I’ve grown. I’ve laughed. I’ve learned. I’ve cried. I’ve loved.

I’m saying goodbye to my eleventh home right here in Forest Hills, but it’s the one that will always be closest to my heart. The last remaining memento of my eleven homes now sits in a box in my closet, filled to the brim with paper memories and figurative remembrances of the last seventeen years.

Now, I’m moving onto my twelfth, but this house will be vastly different from any other. This new home—The University of Arizona—will be special. It will be shared with 40,000 other Wildcats, but at the same time, it will be inherently and wholly mine.

20.

20 trips to Malaysia and Singapore.

Too many times to count, my parents, brother, and I have made a long trek across the globe to Singapore and Malaysia to visit our extended family. The grandmothers and aunts and uncles and cousins weave the dense web of my family tree, but my parents and brother will forever be the family that my heart immediately shoots towards.

More than any other on this globe, my parents and brother have amended me in the most devoted way. Above all of the adventures we’ve taken, they’ve taught me how to love. How to be loving, see the good in others, and do good for the world. Seeing my parents step out of my dorm’s door to head towards their six-hour trip back home will undoubtedly be one of the most difficult things to witness. I’m lucky that’s still a couple months away because it’s a goodbye I’m not quite ready to say yet.

Now, I’m taking on my next adventure without them, but it’s one that they have prepared me for. It’s one that I think I’m ready for.

4.

4 best friends have accompanied me on the ride of senior year.

Tori, Maddie, Emily, and Ellen have for the last two years been my rocks. We took on senior year together and made it the best that we possibly could. I could not have possibly asked for better best friends to persevere through sinusoidal ups and downs with. I could not have asked for kinder, funnier, more caring best friends. There’s so much of the world left for us to conquer before we say goodbye, but how can a goodbye be forever when you know they’ll always truly be with you?

Now, we are all splitting up in different directions, but they will forever be my queens etched into my heart.

163.

163 stories I have posted on The Central Trend to date.

What I knew as only a sixth-hour journalism class quickly transformed into the most important part of my life in Forest Hills. I was given an opportunity to be heard and to allow others to be heard. I found passion in the words I was writing—passion for the things, places, and especially people I was writing about.

Through it all, I was surrounded by peers that quickly grew into my family. I was handed two of the best friends I’ve ever been given in the form of my co-editors. While I might be struggling with the thought of saying goodbye to these people and this publication, I’m still trying to figure out just how I got so lucky to experience it all in the first place. My 163 took me farther than I ever could have imagined.

Now, I’m posting my 164th. And it’s the very last one. It’s not necessarily the loss of writing that is most difficult to bid adieu to. Rather, it’s the goodbyes to the incredible, loving, kind people that have been doing it with me for years that will leave me numb.

1899.

1899 miles will distance me from everything I have known as home thus far.

Tucson, Arizona, with its glimmering sunshine and shimmering dusk is waiting for me. Benevolent, passionate people are exploring the terrain, ready to make new relationships and connections. A whole world of discoveries is awaiting me in the classrooms and labs of my biomedical major. I have to leave my 11 and 4 and 20 and 163, but it’s all in preparation for what is to come.

1899 seemed like far too many.

Now, it’s just what comes next.