Senior Year of Waiting

   With senior year rapidly, scarily, and excitingly coming to a close, I take this time to put my thoughts into words on a digital screen. How do I feel? What are my thoughts exactly? I don't think senior year is all it's cracked up to be whether because of teachers or curriculum or administration. And I don't think I've made the most of it either, which I realize now and am starting to regret. My classes were... mediocre, unchallenging (which is the true shame), and for the most part, a disappoint- ment. I blame myself for some of this too: I didn't try hard enough, or put in enough effort, which is why this year turned out the way it did: an okay year to end a nice high school experience. But school should be more than this. Senior year should be more than this! We should be going out with a bang, having fun, doing something more than watching movies or playing games. Spring semester especially has turned into the waiting game. Tediously and slowly going through the motions every- day, counting the months, weeks, days until graduation, until the moment we turn our tassels to the left and we're finally rid of this place. That sounds harsh. But I know a whole platoon of people who feel the same way I do. We are ready to leave; we're waiting until the principal an- nounces our official graduation from Ernest Righetti High School, then the parties begin. Prepara- tions move forward with full steam, and our eyes leak with tears.
   I look forward to my time in college when I can finally focus on what I want to learn about, take fun classes, live in a new area. Adjusting to the harder and faster pace of university may be a strug- gle, but it's one I'll embrace and hug and smother and love. Or at least I hope I will. Sometimes I wonder why I'm so excited to leave, to graduate, to say goodbye to the people I love and know I will miss. That part, the leaving part and not seeing people part, makes me sad. But why does everything else excite me? I think it's the novelty of college, the upcoming restoration of my love for learning. The area, the new experiences, the new people! All so exciting and inviting. It's the expectations, the greatness of it all, the freedom, the status and maturity, and the overall newness. But for now, it's just sitting and waiting until that day comes.
   I know I'll miss my family, my friends, coaches, teachers, my new puppy. I relish the time I have left, take an extra second to look around and remember the moments I have with classmates that I may never see again. I try to appreciate more the days spent with the people around me, try to predict who I'll actually never see again until the 10 year reunion (I'm excited to see who will have become successful and who will have fallen off the boat and completely crashed and burned; I have a fair few in mind who will end up in the latter). But to conclude this extremely long string of words (I've always been bad at conclusions), I'm excited and prepared to end this waiting game of a senior year. I believe I have won, and I am more than ready to move onto the next game: college.