Looking back on my High School experience, I don’t really have crystal clear memories of things like my very first day of school freshman year and walking up the front steps and swinging the doors open for the first time, seeing the inside of the lobby and what that felt like or anything. I do remember being kind of nervous, not for anything in particular other than the fact that High School was in a different building than the Middle School and that I’d be with kids that I didn’t know from different grades, among other things, and it was just that general I’m-the-new-kid kind of nervousness. But I do remember telling myself over and over that it was okay to be nervous and that everyone was, whether they’d admit it or not, and that I’d eventually get used to it.

I do remember the stress and anxiety that the lunchroom brought, not only for freshman year but also for pretty much every year. I remember freshman year freaking out every time the bell rang for the end of class and scrambling to find my schedule so I could have as much time to try and find my next class as possible, because heaven knows I would have died if I ended up late for any of my classes and had to stand awkwardly in front of everybody trying to explain why I was late and how come I didn’t have a pass and become that annoying freshman that’s so irritating just because they’re new and don’t know anything.

Every year after freshman year got a little easier. As the years went along, I got a better handle on the whole High School game and found my little niche of friends, and figured out what kind of student I was and what kinds of things I found fun, what kind of person I wanted to be, and what kind of friend I wanted to be. Now that it’s senior year, I think the most valuable thing I’ve learned this year is that everything thing in life is a process, and sometimes you come across things that work themselves out and you don’t have to exert too much effort on them and other things take time and sometimes a long, long, long time. But non-the-less it’s all a process, and the important thing isn’t always finishing it, it’s working through it as best you can and learning as much as you can from all of your experiences.