Ever since the first day of kindergarten, we have been anticipating this time in our lives. I was always the most independent child. I still am; it is just beginning to settle in that starting in August I will be all on my own. Everything is just starting to seem so real. The time we thought would never really come, or could not come quick enough, is here and seems unreal. High school has blown by in the blink of an eye. I feel like I was a freshman just last week, trying to navigate the halls of Reagan.

Now we are preparing to get through our last set of high school exams ever and it’s really over. With all of the college preparations, such as finding roommates, dorm room shopping, putting in every kind of deposit you could imagine, our childhood dreams of leaving are coming true and it’s much harder than we imagined it would be.

It is hard to say what I will miss the most when I pack my bags and head off to Greenville in the fall. I am going to miss my childhood friends I have grown up with and have watched shape into the college students we are all about to come. You leave your friends now and then, summers away from each other, go on breaks, go to separate schools, but nothing compares to the thought of moving away from the best friends and strong bonds we have made.

Friends are what make us, they bring us up when we are down, they are our support systems. Now we have to begin the quest to find the right people to be friends with in college, the ones who will keep us on the right track to becoming successful adults. I am excited to make new friends and meet new people, but it is also stressful to leave the only thing we have known and start over.

It will also be difficult for me to leave my family, my mom who has shown me how to be my own person, how to stand up for what I believe in, and how to gracefully get through the toughest times. My dad, who motivates me every day to do my best and encourages me even when I don’t. And especially my (not so) little brother Jim. You take sibling bonds for granted and don’t realize that you’re growing up and one day you will have to leave them. You can easily make new friends when you head off to college, but you can never replace your siblings, so leaving Jim is going to be one of my hardest goodbyes.

I am going to miss being part of a team and playing lacrosse, this crazy sport has brought me some of the best people and friends I could ask for. I’m not sure how I will manage to keep my sanity without Julia Harrison being there to tell me to “rub some dirt on it” whenever something goes wrong. Spring won’t be the same without it.

Last but not least three years on the Newspaper staff has brought lots of ups and downs, love/hate relationships, and probably the most unpredictable set of friends that will be so hard to leave. I will miss our diagrams, sporadic dance parties, Lofthouse cookie days and even stressful print days. I dread leaving our newspaper babies behind and will utterly miss my girl Sarah Krull, also known as Skrull; Rily Bellias, known as Belly; and Annelise Marsh, who comes with many names, the most prominent being Anna-Geese. I love you all dearly, and good luck to you next year.

But I am truly excited for what life has in store for me and what is to come when life gets real over the next four years of my life. Even though it is stressful, I am excited to start over, to make new friends, and to begin my own life. I am excited to see everyone else who we have grown up with mature even more and become the adults we have been preparing to be since the first day of kindergarten.