Senior year is the year for it all. Last first day of school, last Friday Night Lights, last high school dances, all the way up until high school graduation. To look back and realize, there is nothing you can change.
For the longest time, I thought life was supposed to go exactly as I planned when I was 14. I thought if I worked hard enough, stayed focused, and kept everything around me familiar, then everything would fall into place. As I prepare for my final day of high school at Greeley West, I realize the biggest thing high school taught me was how to not follow a plan. It taught me how to let go of one.
As a freshman, I truly believed I had my life planned out perfectly. In my mind, success was simple. Get the best grades, get accepted into a good college, and keep the same routine in order to not get distracted. I figured comfortability was a good thing. I figured I could guarantee myself the future I wanted.
As a freshman, you can imagine this plan did not stick.
Sophomore year came around, and it was then I realized there is more to life than going back to my once perfect plan. I begin making new friends, finding new hobbies, and allowing myself to experience new things. What surprised me the most was that my goals did not disappear or change. However, there was an obvious lack. I had to work for and embarrassingly beg for something that maybe I did not deserve. But something in me knew I had more. In the end, I was still able to succeed at everything and more. With my greatest accomplishment not getting a 4.0 in all advanced classes, or being a varsity player. It was my expansion of knowledge, not academically but rather personally.
By junior year, it clicked. There was a new motive. I did not have to pick between being successful and actually enjoying myself in the time I could never get back. These were special moments. I could be an athlete, stay at the top of my class, spend time laughing mindlessly with my friends, and still work towards my future harder than ever. For the first time, I was not afraid of what was to come or how much I had to accomplish. I was 16 and living for the first time. I knew my path was not a failure or anything less than my capabilities. I stopped holding onto routine, and allowed growth.
Now, as a senior, I can say I feel limitless.
Looking back, I wish I would have embraced change sooner. Some of my best memories, friendships and opportunities in my life came from the moments I never planned for because there is beauty in the unexpected.
Today, I am not going to a top college in the country, not even in the state (which is something I dreamed of). However, I am graduating as an over 4.0 student, a committed soccer athlete, and most importantly as someone who learned that life is much more than what is ideal. When you stop trying to control everything, somehow you get everything. I am leaving Greeley West High School with memories that changed me forever. I am leaving my impact, and I am taking all that I am with faith that the unknown future will bring me success time and time again.
