“It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life…”
And just like that the last day of high school came to a close. Everything that I had become accustomed to, everything that I had trusted and relied on for the past four years was finally gone. I went around saying our goodbyes to all of our teachers and coaches and wished good luck to the underclassmen in their remaining years all the while tears streamed down the faces of most of the graduating students, which included me. This was it. I was not going to return to the high school as a student ever again.
We are all leaving behind the familiar and about to dive into the unknown that is college and really the rest of our lives. We were about to go into the world on our own for the first time. Mom and dad were no longer going to be holding my hands and guiding me through the journey. It is my turn to make my own decisions. I have to start learning how to take care of myself and how to solve my own problems. These are all things that seemed and sometimes do still seem scary to most, if not all, new college students.
But the biggest concern had to be starting over and trying to make friends again. Most of my friends I have known since I moved in the 4th grade. We always did everything together and always had each other’s backs. We traveled in packs and where you found one of us you would always find at least a few more. It was going to be a strange transition for all of us. No more than two of us were going to the same colleges and some were going far enough that we wouldn’t be able to see them until winter break. It is safe to say that our last day together was a hard one.
For one last time, before we all started going our separate ways, we met up at one of our houses. We reminisced on the past couple of years. We played games and told stories. It was a perfect ending to this journey that we had all taken together. We said our last goodbyes to each other and then we all went our separate ways.
And now here we are. All of us are now in college. We are each having our own unique experiences, making new friends, learning new things each and every day. We have all worked hard to get to where we are and are now working even harder to get to where we want to go. It is now our time to start reaching towards the future that we desire and make it happen.