These past few days, I’ve begun to realize how important it is to appreciate the experiences and the people that surround you in the present. At the beginning of my senior year, I was so anxious to leave and head to college. I truly didn’t think I would miss anyone. But now that the warm summer breezes are winding down to the biting breath of fall, I’m finding it harder and harder to accept that life as I know it will never be the same again. Those innocent June afternoons on the trampoline with my brother and the rare but precious hours of bonding with my sister are long gone, and child’s play is now a thing of the past.

I’m sorry, I get a bit corny and nostalgic when I reminisce about better days.

While a huge part of me is so excited to see so many fresh faces and have those once in a lifetime college experiences, another part of me is trying to figure out how this happened. It feels like I woke up one morning to find myself much older and more serious than I had ever thought myself to be. And the thought of never being that kid in highschool seems surreal. No more French class with my favorite teacher, who I suspect really hated us all since we were impossible for four years straight. No more fencing, which was the single most important outlet for me in highschool. No more football games, no more all-school productions which, crazy as it may sound, was probably the single most important event of the year. I say this is crazy because it was the one time a year that football players, cheerleaders, and chess team members alike came together to watch a group of passionate kids on stage, living out their dreams of becoming the most impressive actors and singers in school.

I know that I’ll do great in college. I know that I’ll have plenty of friends and that i’ll adjust to a new lifestyle with relative ease. But I also know that somewhere inside, my mind will wander back to those chilly friday nights watching a football game, and I’ll always be that girl, moving briskly through the halls of my highschool, wondering what lies ahead.