High school is an important period in the majority of people’s lives. It’s an exciting time due to kids “finding themselves,” learning their values and figuring out what they want to be doing with their life. Even with all these amazing things discovered in high school, most kids are practically begging for graduation to come sooner.

Senior year feels like ages away as a freshman, but it creeps up at an impressively quick pace. As a soon-to-be Junior, I still feel like a freshman. Growing older as fast as high school students do is a scary thing. You go from having few expectations as a student to  being a fully-functional adult in just four years.

Whether you enjoy school or not, leaving high school has a bittersweet ending. I don’t like school but I will miss my friends and our memories so much. Being in high school can be used as an excuse for some mistakes and I will definitely miss having that excuse. I will miss everything around school, other than the actual learning. I will miss assemblies, football games, sitting with all my friends at lunch and doing projects together but I will not miss sitting in class.

Growing up is strange. Half of me wants to be on my own and independent, while the other half is scared of doing things out of my comfort zone. Simple things like driving yourself to the grocery store, attending a job interview or making an important phone call can remind you of the new responsibilities you need to face as you get older.

Being an upperclassman means thinking about your future, and what you plan to do with it. Junior year is a prime time for college visits and last minute volunteer work for your applications. Then, senior year you send out your applications and impatiently await their responses.

My senior year, I plan to catch up with old friends in the remaining months of high school. I hope to make as many exciting memories as possible, leading into a new start. I really want to keep college out of my mind as I enjoy my last few high school experiences.

As we say goodbye to the class of 2018, West students are reminded of all of the things that they will have to go through in the future. Graduation forces you to move on with your life, whether you’re ready or not.