My Most Impactful Experience

Most of my impactful experiences occurred in high school. In my first two years of high school, I wouldn't say they were as impactful as the last two. Everyone's first year is trying to settle down and get used to the change from middle school to high school. My second year was sort of impactful, I made 3 best friends, one goes to college in Northern Ohio, the other I don't talk to as much anymore, and the third one ended up being my boyfriend of 3 years and still going.

In my junior year, I decided to go to our local vocational school, Southern Hills Career and Technical Center, and I went for culinary. I didn't want to stay at my high school, I wanted to experience something new. We catered for school events and even for some out-of-school events. My instructor, Julie, who we call Chef, owned a restaurant called Lake Manor. Every Wednesday starting in October, we would host an event called Chef's Corner. Our culinary lab was also a restaurant! I was a waitress, and, on those days, I stayed all day to help. I met so many people in my lab and even in other labs. I learned many skills that I could use as a career or even just life skills for the future in just one year.

In my senior year was my most impactful. Every year, our school would pick one to two seniors to work in the school's cafeteria. Me and one of my best friends I mentioned earlier were hired on by the school to work from 7:45 am to the end of the day which was around 2:00 pm. We would spend all day prepping and cooking lunch and when lunch was ready, we would serve our students lunch. 2 lines, ala carte, and our scheduled lunch, each of us would work either one. Once lunch was done, we could spend all day cleaning and prepping things for the next day's breakfast and lunch. Of course, we graduated that year, my last day was the saddest day of my life. I loved working with the other two permanent lunch ladies, I grew so close to them. I haven't seen them since.

My junior and senior years were the most impactful to me. Met so many new and cool characters, got into a lot of drama, fixed the drama, and if I could go back and do it all over again, I would. In a heartbeat. It's bittersweet.