By: Estrella McDaniel
This year is coming to an end, and it has the Seniors looking back to what they have accomplished for the past four years and what they have learned. In a couple of weeks the Seniors are going to have to take the life lessons they have established and use them in the future, whether it’s for college or for long after college. High School is going to be apart of them for their whole lives, but once they graduate they’ll see that High School was just the beginning of a journey that is yet to come. This journey is what will determine what you will do for the rest of your lives, and whether you will let the person you were in High School define who you are or continue to define yourself in college or wherever you plan on going after High School. The path you choose after High School will help determine the person you hope to become in the future.
Claire Yang 19’ states that “she would change a lot but the main thing she would change is the fact that she wasn’t that involved and the main things she was in was Tennis and Mock Trial.” Just get out there more and be yourself because High School is the place where you can do that and, where you can reach out to people you’ll never know when you may need them one day. For soon to be Seniors Yang says to definitely “ hop on that bandwagon of college applications, scholarships, and financial aid. It is definitely better to do them during the summer and get it all over with, don’t procrastinate. Also get to know your teachers especially when you may need a letter of recommendation from them.” A lesson she has learned is to be yourself because the only you can be is yourself I know it’s hard when society makes you feel you have to be one type of way, but the only way to be is yourself so just embrace it. “ Some life experiences Yang has obtained is that she’s been through the highs and lows but she was able to learn from Tennis that “ with a lot of hard work you can get wherever you want to be. Yang is happy with what she has accomplished throughout these four years she does wish she would have done more but, some of these highlights were being on the varsity tennis team all four years, winning valley twice this year, being in Mock Trial for all four years and going to state three times.
Megan James 19’ says that the only thing she would change is how involved she was in school. Some advice for soon to be Seniors would be to “live everyday like it’s your last because it technically is and just cherish everything cherish going to that class you hate, cherish seeing the people you don’t like, and cherish waking up early because before you know it, it’ll all be over.” Something she can take away from High School is definitely the lessons she learned whether it was altercations with some of the friends she has made along the way or whether it was lessons Mrs.Galvan taught her there is just a lot of life lessons she will take away from High School. Some of these life experiences was this year she was able to direct and it led her to question the trajectory of where her life is going and the job she wants to do. James is very satisfied with her accomplishments throughout her High School career, some highlights would be Mr.Ranger “being Bryan Trejo’s escort was really fun”, and basically everyday has just been a highlight in her eyes.
Alexis Cabrera 19’ explains that he would change some of the people he hung out with in High School. For soon to be Seniors he would say have fun, and don’t stress out too much because once you stress yourself out the rest of your year will be more difficult to get through. Something Cabrera can take away from High School is that “life just happens sometimes and it just depends on how you react to what happens that will determine the outcome of the situation.” A life experience he obtained was that life isn’t fair and that it doesn’t matter how hard you work because sometimes it still isn’t going to go your way there will always be favoritism and you just have to go through it “life just happens.” Cabrera is very accomplished with what he has done these last four years but his highlights have definitely been soccer and the fact that he was able to grow as a soccer player.
High School will have ups and downs and it’s up to you on how you deal with it and go through with it that will provide you with the best outcome. Even though in a few weeks all the Seniors will be going their separate ways and learning how to become adults, we will always come back to the memories of High School. No matter what you go through you can always learn from your mistakes or even your successes. Life is complicated and no matter what you try to do to fix it sometimes it’s just not fixable. You can go through life confused and frustrated but once you decide to pick yourself up and start to not feel bad about everything you can finally move on and be happy. Graduating High School might seem scary and in many ways it is, but once we get over the fact that it’s scary we can start our journey and remember that Redwood will always be our home.