High school has lasted a long time.

Four years of constant oscillation between extreme highs and lows over things that, in hindsight, didn’t matter all that much. Four years spent developing a skewed sense of what counts as “average,” what’s expected of me, and what I ultimately “deserve.” All in all, high school has been one of the worst periods of my (so far, pretty short) life. Still, I’m glad I pulled through. I’ve grown a lot, and despite everything, I’m satisfied with the way things played out.

Looking back, who I am now is the result of near-statistically-significant luck. Throughout high school, I scraped by on every retake offered to me, just barely managing my grades at the end of each quarter; I’ve met some of the best people in my life through sheer coincidence. I hate when people take credit for my work, but my luck always seems to turn around when I’m at my lowest.

Behind these so-called coincidences, I’m grateful for the teachers who were patient with me, even when I struggled to turn in assignments on time. I am so unbelievably thankful to the teachers who prioritized learning over busy-work-hell.

I also have my family to thank. I had (and have) strict parents, but I could still choose what I wanted to do in my free time, from Black Maskers to The Tide. Despite their high expectations, I somehow always found time to play games, text friends, and spend afternoons at the library.

The Tide will always hold a special place in my heart. From getting my first paper plate award from Raha (with a silly tiger on it) and frantically trying to find a working pen so Max could sign my yearbook, to sheepishly telling Kidd and Peyer we’d have to come in Monday to export, to the Panera in RTC closing—I’ll probably cry at the end-of-year party. I can’t imagine a version of high school where I didn’t meet Alessandro in sophomore-year second-period journalism, where I couldn’t turn around in BC Calc to talk to Jocelyn, grab HeyTea with Catherine, or wave to Taiwo in Trader Joe’s.

High school has lasted a long time, but even now, I’m just starting to meet people I wish I could spend more time with, people I wish I’d known earlier. To anyone reading this, I hope you’ll take what’s left of your four years and make the most of it.