High school is like time travel. It takes forever, but it’s over in a blink of an eye. Four years sounds like a long time, but once it’s over, it feels like four minutes. Thanks to confusion and COVID, my high school years were a bit unconventional. However, I am proud to say that despite the obstacles, I am grateful to be graduating in May 2021.

I enrolled my freshman year at Lutheran High School West when I was thirteen years old. I started my freshman year in July 2017 playing varsity soccer for the Lutheran West Longhorns. My time as a freshman was not very pleasant. I didn’t have many friends, and the school atmosphere didn’t speak to me. Almost everybody at that school stood for things I stand against. There were lots of Trump Supporters, Pro-lifers, and racists there. I was completely lost. Attending my middle school years at Albert Einstein Academy, I was always a straight-A student, and I was a follower of my friends around me. Making the transition to Lutheran West, I received B’s and C’s, and I didn’t really have anybody to follow. The freshman year for me was all about finding my true self. I continued with theatre, started doing more makeup, focused more on friendships outside of school, and just tried new things I thought I might enjoy.

Sophomore year started in August 2018. I was 14 years old and very depressed. I had a fun summer vacation at Disney World, and then it was back to my miserable highschool. My makeup skills somewhat improved, but I still was not very good at it. I had fewer friends than my first year at Lutheran West, and I spent a lot of time trying to bring my grades up. Although depressed, I had a lot of fun outside of school. I took a few weekend trips throughout the year and finally, in May 2019 I finished my sophomore year, and I headed back to Albert Einstein Academy.

Going back to AEA, I thought it would be a cakewalk. I was sorely mistaken. Although I had grown a lot since 8th grade, many of my old classmates still had memories of 12-year-old me wearing cat ears and hanging out with a weirder crowd. For my junior year, there were also a lot more new faces that I was a bit intimidated by. I missed my first day of school because the day before I was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania meeting Tom Holland at Comic-Con. Walking in on the second day of school was very scary. I was new, and I had missed the important first day. Thankfully, returning to AEA was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I was happier, met my best friend, Eva, got my grades back up, and, even though it was cut short due to COVID, I made a lot more friends. 2019 has so far been the best year of my life, and I am so glad I finished my junior year at AEA.

Today, I am a senior. It is my final year of high school and words cannot describe how grateful I am that it is almost over. Due to COVID-19 I will graduate my senior year without stepping foot into a single classroom this school year. I am graduating at age 17 and I couldn’t be more proud of how much I have grown and changed. I truly found myself through my highschool experience. The good and the bad all helped shape me into the person I am today. Not much has happened my senior year, but overall, it was a great final year of high school. I am very excited for graduation and figuring out what lies ahead of me.