If I could talk to my freshman self, I’d have a lot to say. First, I’d probably be wondering how I’m face to face with myself from four years ago. After the initial shock, let’s just assume that we start talking about school, because why not. I’d probably tell him first and foremost to stay on top of his school work. I can’t tell you how many times I just didn’t work on something and either forgot or had to rush to finish it all the night before. Writing two thirds of an English paper at 10 p.m. after a track meet and 3 days before April Break is not the move.

I’d also tell him to take the college application process more seriously and start earlier, considering I hadn’t even opened my CommonApp until after November 1. The process seems very intimidating at first, and there is a lot to do, but just taking the time to actually read through what I had to do and understand the process makes it much more approachable.

I would also tell myself to just get involved more earlier. I didn’t play sports or join clubs my freshman year, and I came to regret it later when COVID more or less wiped out a year and a half of activities. Four years in the grand scheme of things really isn’t as long as you think, and putting things off until later only works until you run out of later.

Don’t go to the bathrooms in the lobby. Just trust me on that one. Also, don’t get your hopes up about GTA 6 or the 2022 Celtics playoff run. Other than that I wouldn’t really tell myself anything else. That’d be ruining the surprise.

I don’t really know what else to say, so I’d like to thank everyone who helped me throughout high school. First and foremost my parents for always supporting me and motivating me to just finish my work, especially when I didn’t want to. I’d like to thank all the teachers who come to school everyday and perform a very important, pretty thankless job. I’d especially like to thank Mrs. Stoker for running The Lobby Observer and giving us an outlet to create the kind of content we want to see.

I’d like to thank my co-stars (if you can call us stars) from Full Court Press and The O for all the good times, and thank Mrs. Henderson for putting up with us at Westborough TV. Matty, tell Rahim to tell Tommy to tell Jake to tell AJ to tell Drew that it’s time to end the article.