Never did I think time would fly by so fast. As an underclassman, senior year was just a distant thought. Now there are only a few days until I graduate, until we are all dressed in our caps and gowns. A few days until all four years of hard work pays off.A few days until our lives truly start.

High school was just one chapter in a book not just yet published. We will never walk these halls again, these halls where we all grew into the people we are today. No more school lunches, lockers, vocab quizzes, I will never dress in another high school gym uniform. All these things are so bittersweet. The people we have known for our whole lives will all go their separate ways. The immature teenagers we grew up with will become doctors, mothers, hero’s, architects. Each one of us will become apart of each others pasts.

Approaching the finish line, we are faced with numerous decisions. Decisions become real and very serious senior year. It’s scary but also exciting. The places we’ll go. what career we will follow. I wish I would’ve known the severities of senior year so I am here to tell you. Here are two very important things to know for senior year.

First, be prepared. Senior year comes very fast and so does important decision making. Deciding what career you want to invest your whole rest of your life and a lot of money on. Some people do not know what career they want to go into. It’s terrifying and where a lot of people are at right now. There are so many occupations and opportunities you haven’t even thought of yet. I want to make sure the education and eventually a career is possible for me to achieve and to be successful in. Also I wonder if it will make me happy. We all want a job we love. The choices we make now affect our future immensely. Although it doesn’t seem possible, there is always a choice to change your mind. Which believe it or not, but what a lot of people do.  Having mini mental breakdowns due to not knowing what I will do with my future was very common throughout senior year.

With the help and advice from multiple teachers and friends, I’ve learned that changing your mind and not just yet knowing what you would like to do with your life is very common and most importantly ok. Just be prepared to face hurdles and complications because they are inevitable.Somewhere along the road you will hit bumps. Be prepared for placement testing, and applying for colleges, the FAFSA, the joy of being accepted to a college, and the heartbreaking letter of not being accepted. When you think there is no way I am getting into THAT college. Maybe you won’t and that is ok but maybe you will. There are so many options and it is not the end of the world if you don’t get accepted to the college of your dreams, the goal is to get an education and you can do so, mostly anywhere.

Second, everything is temporary including high school, friends, even the good and certainty the bad. Almost everything is temporary in our lives. The good things eventually will go away. The football player will play his last game of his high school career. Leaving his mark on the field. He will turn in his jersey and only have left the memories he had made with his brothers. There will be one last time the basketball player will suit up and shoot her last 3 pointer. The sound of the ‘swoosh’ of the basketball perfectly catching nothing but net and the gymnasium roaring and cheering her name. One last pep rally, the whole school gathers and even though some say it’s annoying deep down inside we all enjoy pep rallies. One last time he will play the trumpet for the band. One last high school test. One last time you will go to prom with your friends. On the dance floor singing to your favorite song with a dress that makes you feel invincible. The smiles from photo booth pictures we’ll show our kids someday. These moments we take for granted.These things don’t last forever so enjoy them while they last. Along with the good comes bad things. Fighting with your friends, disliking someone who has done no wrong to you, losing a loved one, failing your math quiz, feeling invisible. All these things are temporary even when they seem like they will last forever. You will find the light at the end of the tunnel when it may seem impossible.  We all have heard the term “ the good old days.” Well these are the times in our life we’ll look back on a consider the good old days. Make them count. When your 65 with grey hair and wrinkles make sure you look back and have these times to smile upon. As young teenagers we don’t realize when were old we won’t be able to do half the things we can do today. We do not realize how fast time disappears, disintegrating into thin air right before our eyes. Where that time goes? We don’t know. So while we have the time sign up for clubs, talk to people, make friends, play sports, go to dances, and just have fun!

To the seniors and soon to be graduates, class of 2018 . One day you are a freshman walking into a new school filled with many people. You don’t know where you’re going and you don’t know how to open your locker. In a blink of an eye, you are sitting with your classmates in a cap and gown, waiting for your name to be called. Receiving a diploma to justify making it through 4 years of highschool. You made it. This moment you have waited for years is finally here. The next chapter is about to begin and we as graduates have a whole lot of greatness to bring to the future. Maybe not just yet but one day we all will be making a difference. Either it be saving a life as a doctor,  building new homes for families, finding cures to diseases. We are about to take ours first steps into the real world. We have the power to make it remarkable. As Dr. Seuss would say “ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes

You can steer yourself

Any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”  

As a senior, to all the underclassman a word of advice: Be prepared for ups and downs, college visits, testing, picking your classes, picking a major. Also value your time as a high schooler. Live life without any regrets, go to football games, have fun at prom, make friends, go to parties, and just have fun because high school comes to an end before you know it; enjoy it while it lasts.