These last few months of high school are the tunnel with the light at the end. Coming down the home stretch, I’ve really been thinking a lot about what graduation means to me. I’ve chosen a path that ultimately will lead me away from the only town I’ve known as home.
This commencement is a pivotal turning point in my life. Most of the kids I’ve known and grown up with, I will never see again. Only a handful of good friends will remain in touch. These memories will soon fade, and that scares me.
High school has played a larger role in my life than I expected. From friendships faded to new ones formed, my interests, political views and hobbies are attributed to the kids I’ve grown up with and associated with. Now that I’m so close to the end of it, I realize how much it has meant to me.
There were the kids I didn’t like, and the teacher who really got on my nerves. But I’ve ended these quarrels and found myself re-engaging relations with these people and enjoying it. I see the maturity I’ve developed from my experiences — my hates, my desires, my faults.
Everything I once disliked or enjoyed has ultimately been a part of the person I am today. It is in these final months of high school that I’ve realized this.
Where does this leave me? I like to think that this beginning part of my life was the easiest.
This commencement from high school is our first hardship, our first real separation from something we enjoyed. That’s all the more reason to leave, to experience new things, new people, new ideas, and to challenge your own opinions and ideas and find something else you enjoy in life, and pursue it.
— Seth Cohen, Newbury Park
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