Reflecting back on my four years of high school is something somewhat nostalgic and yet unbelievably exciting in the midst of my desperate preparations to wrap up every loose end before the end of school. Did you enjoy high school? A question which is inevitably to be asked for the rest of my life and yet I do not feel like I will ever be able to give a proper answer. I have loved high school for what it has made of me. I entered as a terrified freshman who couldn’t find E Hall for anything, and I am leaving infinitely more confident in myself, surrounded by people who have found me and decided I was worthwhile throughout the years.

My high school experience has not exactly been the most typical experience. I exist somewhere between the AP and IB programs, and though I am part of more clubs than most, finding “my people” was more of a collectors game, solidifying old and new friendships alike.

Senior year makes me nostalgic about the strangest things. I’ve been looking at the pictures that surround the hallways recently, wondering who the students in them are, if I’ve ever talked to them before, where they are now. Walking into high school wanting to leave a legacy was a big dream of mine, one which I have all but realized is less of making sure everyone knows my name and more of making change in the places which have made me feel welcome. Everyone is bound to have a different high school experience, yet there are a few experiences I fully believe everyone should have.

Go to at least one pep rally. Make fun of those with over enthusiastic school spirit or join the theater and choir kids in leading the school with motions to every song. Join one club with your friends. Or without your friends, if you feel passionately about something then you’re bound to find people of the same mindset. Eat lunch in the cafeteria, in a teacher’s room, and off campus, you never know who you will make friends with or what will happen. Go to a football game, even if you hate football, simply for the sake of being able to talk about it the next day.

More than anything, Arlington High is what you make of it. Participate a lot, a little, or not at all. Barely pass your classes, get straight As, but there is more to high school than grades. Everyone changes in high school, but in the end, high school is just four years. There are countless things left for the class of 2019 to experience in all sides of the world. So thank you for all the stories, and here’s to us getting out of here.