Hi! I’m Angelina Bailey. I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Giles High School. I have attended GCPS since Kindergarten and it’s given me some pretty funny stories to tell. However, I couldn’t have made it where I am today without all of the wonderful people I’ve had in my corner throughout the years.

I’ve had so many great teachers, each of them teaching me something other than what's in their lesson plans. I was usually recognized as “Charisma’s little sister,” which I guess is fitting because I couldn't have made it through the last 12 years without her. I made some pretty awesome friends… some only temporary, some lifelong. Regardless of who’s still here and who’s not, I am grateful for everybody I have known along the way.

Over the last 12 years I know I have said, “I can’t wait to graduate and be done” at least 1,000 times, but now that the time has come I’m not so sure I’m ready. As I sit and think of all the crazy memories I’ve made, I realize that the next time I go to a football game, I’ll have to buy a ticket because I won’t be cheering on the sidelines. The next time I sit under those Friday night lights, I won’t be invited to sit in the student section because I’ll no longer be a GHS student. I won’t get that “First Day” feeling or have to contemplate if I can get by with being late to first period just one more time, because I really needed that coffee from McDonald's.

I know every kid hates school and I told myself every time I got frustrated at whatever assignment I was working on that I did too, but now that I sit here and realize what I’m gonna miss I ask myself, do I really? My fellow classmates and I did not get a traditional junior or senior year, but I am grateful for what we did get, and that we’re here together.

To the upcoming seniors and anyone else who needs to hear it, don’t take it for granted. Go to the football games, participate in spirit week, be the loudest class at pep rallies, study for your tests, tell your teachers thank you and be respectful because the majority time, if you do, they'll help you in any way they can. Embrace every special moment you get, because one day you’ll walk in those double doors covered in Spartan pride as a freshman. Then, the next thing you know, you’re walking out to the same bell you’ve heard for four years for the last time in a cap and gown wishing you could have just five more minutes. So when your time comes, I hope you think to yourself, “I wouldn’t have done it any other way."