Aspirations are kind of like ideas- you throw a ton of stuff at the wall and hope a few stick. And it’s always a mess at the end.

I first walked through the double doors to Main Street with a whole lot of dreams. I wanted to find friendship, ace my exams, attend every football game, get a driver’s license… I was expecting the four years of excitement and identity formation that every coming-of-age novel promised. As my graduation date approaches, I still don’t have my license or the right words to say goodbye to the second home that this school has become.

In retrospect, I was lucky enough to cross off most of my bucket list. But the most valuable parts of these moments have a habit of surprising me. My favorite pep rally was the one I skipped, walking to CVS with the upperclassmen from my math class who I had been too shy to talk to. I don’t remember most of my AP scores, but I can recall the taste of a Panera lemonade over cram sessions with my friends as I struggled with confidence intervals. The best part of Drama wasn’t the few seconds of spotlight, it was the Taylor Swift carpool karaoke as we drove home from closing night. And while Debate is structured around constructives and rebuttals, it’s also comprised of evening FaceTimes and pre-round healing frequencies with my partner.

I’ll graduate this place with a lot of useless trivia about induction and useful knowledge about the world. But the moment I anticipate the most isn’t crossing the stage for a diploma, it’s the few seconds after the final speech, where I’ll throw my cap into the air like everyone else, and run towards my friends for a final hug. These four years are full of brilliant, funny, wonderful people. Make sure to hold on to the good ones, because they’ll fill all the empty space between milestones with enough primary colors to shift the hue of your whole experience.

Thank you to Mr. Davis and Ms. Goetz, for teaching me to love math. To Mr. GK, for believing in me so strongly that I forgot my own fear of public speaking. To Ms. LeBright, for accompanying me through college applications and gossip sessions. To Mr. Goetz, for giving me partial credit on horrifyingly late assignments. Hopefully, Ms. Kidd is feeling similarly generous with this essay, as I forgot that it was due on the 28th. And to RM, for the best four years of my life (so far…)!