Though I have been a senior since August, and it is soon to be May, I am still not sure if I am supposed to feel sad, happy, or nostalgic about everything. I’m excited for the new experiences that I will be able to make as I make my way farther east to East Carolina University. Meeting new people and making new adventures is one of my most treasured experiences. The only new experience I would rather not have is dorm room living and dining hall meals.

Besides the living and food aspect of college I am completely ready. I will miss all of the friends I have made in my past seventeen years but the memories I have made with them will never be forgotten, some of the sad times and the best times of my life have set my mood for college.

College has brought more excitement to life, while having to make life changing decisions as well as planning my future. It has gotten me somewhat out of my rut believing that high school was a never-ending cycle of the same thing over and over again. I’m in need of new classes and new people with different backgrounds and ideas on life.

I have always had amazing friends that I will always love, but at some point I realized I won’t know them forever and I’m okay with that. I was told when entering high school that things change and people change, and that’s okay.

My four years at Reagan High School have been life-changing, filled with tragedies that brought me down but always more excitement and happiness than I could ever explain. I will miss being a “kid,” even though when I finally turn 18 I probably won’t be referred to as an adult.

I plan on doing my best but also have in mind that many mistakes will be made on my path to being a college student. I go back and forth on if I am ready, or want to be a freshman all over again, to wanting to graduate tomorrow and leave Pfafftown forever.

No need to worry though, I plan on returning to see all of my friends who aren’t lucky enough to be a part of the graduating class of 2018, though I have heard that when I return it will be strange and different. I will be a visitor and no longer a student; it won’t be my high school anymore, it will be the high school I used to go to, and the teachers I had will no longer be my teachers, everything will be in the past tense.

When I come back to room 424 at Reagan and enter my old newspaper room next year, I will see the people I love the most. I will be able to catch up and talk of my new adventures with my favorite new seniors Rily Bellias and Annelise Marsh. The memories I have made in this class may have all begun with stress but by the end of class I always end up being so full I could pop from all of the cookies we had decided to eat that day or laughing so hard we were in tears because of the interesting drawings we had collaborated on that day.

Leaving high school with these amazing newspaper memories has made me realize I am a happier person, and I also may be leaving with a slight Lofthouse cookie addiction. In all seriousness, I have learned many life lessons from a class I started gearing up for freshman year.

I am ready to learn more life lessons and grow into a young adult with strong pirate pride. To those who I am leaving, basically everyone, I will miss you very much and I am forever grateful for the times I have had, and dont worry, college has longer breaks so I will be back. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for all of my friends–you will all do amazing things.

I will miss my family more than anything else I have never been away from them for over two weeks at a time and it breaks my heart to leave them but in a way I am ready to go out and find new experiences and learn how to take care of myself and live on my own.

Saying goodbye is always hard and as high school comes to an end for me and my fellow classmates, I am realizing it’s just a way of life and everyone must do it. I am excited to see what is in my future and what it holds for me.