A song by Dr. Dog called “Where’d All The Time Go?” has lyrics that describe my high school experience the best: “way too fast and way too slow.” There were times in each of my four years where I felt like time was flying by, mostly at the end of each year, but also instances where I felt like each day would never end.

Right now, especially with the pandemic, I feel as though my time has been cut short and I wonder how great the end of my senior year could have been if it hadn’t ended. I missed senior assassin, senior ball, baccalaureate, Mr. WHS, the lip-sync show, the last day, and my graduation ceremony. Even though a few things are being rescheduled, my senior ball dress is still hanging in my closet waiting to be worn and the in-person experiences won’t occur soon, if at all.

Most students have a lot of “in-school friends,” where they talk everyday, but don’t spend time together outside of school. For me at least, I have a lot of those friends and some I probably will never see again besides our graduation, but that could also be months from now. There are teachers I wanted to have my picture taken with at graduation to remember how great they are, but who knows if I can even go near them at the ceremony.

During my freshman year, I remember time was moving fast and I was having a lot of fun. I believe this was the year where there was a large snow storm where the power went out in one school and the snow days fell near a long weekend, so we were out of school for almost a week! Additionally, I am still bummed that during the one year where no one has to make up snow days, we only had two. Snow days are one of the things I will miss about high school: getting excited the night before, using Snow Day Calculator, waking up extra early to make sure they called school off, playing in the snow with friends and making hot chocolate. That was something I was even excited about as a senior, not just in elementary school or my early years of high school, I literally jumped up and down when the first snow day was called this year.

My sophomore year was a really slow year for me and it felt like forever until the last month of school. Every year has the slow period after February break, when March hits and there’s only one half day to get students by until April break. This is the absolute worst for me, but the absolute best once April break happens. Coming back and seeing the countdown to the last day on Mr. Perryman’s board is something that always motivated me to just keep going since the year was almost done.

My junior year was probably my favorite year because of the great teachers I built relationships with, as well as meeting people that are now important to me. I felt like this was the first year I really tried hard and did well in classes. This was also the first year to be looking deeply into colleges, touring campuses, learning about what senior year will be like and getting excited for the future.

But now is the future- and it is not what I expected or imagined it would be.
So, goodbye to all of my teachers, my best friends, my “in-school friends,” the memories, and good luck to the ones who follow. I’m grateful to have spent the few months that I did in school during my final years. I was able to meet even more teachers this year and connect with more students, while learning new topics in such a short time. A few years ago, you would never hear me say this but: I can’t wait to walk the halls and enter my school one last time.