My first run-in with anything to do with high school was in fifth grade; my friend’s older sister was a sophomore and started talking to my friends and me. I remember looking at them and thinking about how old they looked, many of them with purple and pink hair and heeled boots. I knew that in reality they were not that much older than me, but it baffled me. How could someone be close to my age but look and act so much older?

Four years later, I was stepping foot in the high school for my first ever high school art class. I remember being a little anxious, but strangely I was more excited to leave than I was to take in the high school experience. And that was my whole year; I liked that I had classes with my friends, but I was more excited to go home. This was probably my fault; I never joined any clubs, and I had a small circle of friends who were more active in school than I was. 

Then came sophomore year.

I had this one friend who invited me out on a random Thursday night to watch her brother play football. At the game, we met up with a third girl and hung out the entire night. That night built the foundation for my way of getting through high school; having a good support system with real people is vital to any socially and physically growing teenager. 

Now, looking back, my entire perspective has changed. I look at the kids in my graduating class, still confused, but more so to how we’re finished. Most of these kids I’ve known since childhood. In my mind, we’re still those same kids at the fifth grade stepping up ceremony. The same kids who took hours to figure out how to open a locker for middle school. The same kids who got lost finding their classes for the first week of freshman year. My advice to any entering freshman aligns with the classic “it goes by”; enjoy these four years as much as you can. I know everyone and their mother says it over and over to any kid entering ninth grade, but it’s for a reason. These four years went by in the blink of an eye, and I wish I had stopped spending them wishing for them to be over, but rather enjoyed the present and the time I spent in it.

By Ella Utano

Class of 2022