It’s so hard to believe that we’re getting close to ending our high school journey. Thinking back, it seems like it was just yesterday we were just sitting in our elementary school classrooms staring at the clock wishing it was time for recess.

Just a few days ago, my neighbors had their kids outside playing with each other. I looked over to see them running around, not caring about anything but what was happening right then and there. 

Looking back on my school life from preschool until now, it blows my mind how much has changed—how much everyone around me has changed.

In elementary school, we always wanted to be “the big kids,” the fourth-graders, and rule the playground.

Then, all of a sudden, it was time to sing our goodbye song to the lowerclassmen, participating in our last field day, waving goodbye to our teachers on the last day of school—all for the last time. 

Suddenly, it’s time for orientation, meeting our new teachers, seeing some familiar faces and some new. Nervous to meet everyone, being introduced to the concept of lockers with combination locks, this was the big league. The concept of having more than one teacher, maybe two, maybe even three, was mind boggling. 

Personally, the night before was when I freaked out the most, thinking to myself,  “Will they like me? What if I get lost? What if I can’t find my locker? What if I can’t figure out how to work my locker?” 

But, we all were able to conquer those small things and even make lifelong friendships—or so we thought at the time. 

In a blink of an eye, we were sixth graders preparing for middle school. We were stressing about changing classes every hour, getting lost, the weird passing periods, actual letter grades, exams, and, worst of all, no recess.

Around this time, we were still in contact with people who were our “besties” in fifth and sixth grade, or we drifted apart because they weren’t on the same team as us. 

We entered middle school scared that people wouldn’t like us, wanting to fit in, seeing friends we haven’t seen since what seemed like forever. We were meeting a ton of new people from Central Woodlands who we never encountered before.

We found new friends, maybe even best friends. We altered our hallway routes just to see each other for a second within those short five-minute passing periods.

We looked up to the high schoolers as we thought that they were so cool. We wished that we were a high schooler, because who wouldn’t want to be one?

The last stop was the high school. Entering freshman year was one of the most difficult transitions compared to the three other ones we had experienced from past years. The pressure was on; these final four years count.

Freshmen look forward to being sophomores and not being on the bottom of the food chain. Sophomores want to be juniors to have more power over the lower classmen. As for the juniors, they just want to maintain a high GPA, pass the SAT, and not stress out too much. 

Until finally senior year starts. It hits us that this is our final year with the classmates we have grown up with. The friends we’ve made from the past twelve years, the relationships we’ve crafted, all could end in a blink of an eye. 

Looking back on everything, elementary school seems like it’s been an eternity. We are yearning for the days we got naps, recesses, coloring for homework, and when grades didn’t matter at all. Sadly, we’ve all grown up.

Not that long ago we wanted to be “the big kids.” Now we are, and all we want to do is go back to when we were younger and life was whatever we wanted it to be.

I’m just a junior, but the reality has already set in. I’m not ready to grow up and move on from my high school experience, but sadly, we all have to move on soon.

Despite COVID-19, I’m going to make this next year and a half count, make memories I won’t forget, meet new people, and try new things; we’re only in high school for four years, and we have to make it all count.