Senior Reflection: Nadaja Burnett-Pierre

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Charisse Warfield

Arts and Entertainment Managing Editor Nadaja Burnett-Pierre reflects on her time in high school

Nadaja Burnett-Pierre, Arts and Entertainment Manging Editor

I decided that since I have an obsession with MARVEL movies it would only be right to tell my senior reflection as if it were a MARVEL movie. I know this is nerdy, but I’m a graduating senior so nobody can make fun of me, I’m practically gone.

Freshmen year: my origin story

Freshmen year was rough, to say the least. I was new to the area, I missed my old friends, and I quit a lot of the extracurriculars that I used to do. I didn’t really have anybody for the first couple weeks of school but thanks to Mrs. Confino, I met a best friend.

If Mrs. Confino wasn’t late every morning during my freshman year, I don’t know what I would be doing now. It took a while, but I finally started to have fun in high school rather than dreading every second. I finally had people who looked out for me and I was able to feel like I belonged.

Sophomore year: mastering my powers

Even though I made friends freshman year, I still felt pretty alone outside of school. I never hung out after school or went to a friend’s house. Seriously, I never left my house — my mom tried to pay me just to leave the house. Finally, I began to hang out with my peers and tried to get involved in clubs.

It was so different than what I had been used to because for a long time I tried to be as detached from high school as possible. However, sophomore year was when I really tried to embrace everything and become a part of the community.

Junior year: my first supervillain battle

Junior year was my hardest year. I felt like I was doing everything wrong in life. My grades were hard to maintain, all the SAT and ACT testing was killing me, and the college applications were burying me alive. I’ve never struggled the way I did during junior year. Throughout high school, I felt like getting good grades came naturally and I had my life put together. Junior year tested me on a daily basis and I failed every test.

I had to work so hard to maintain my mental health and grades. Even though my junior year was a challenge, it showed me that I CAN make it through hard times and that I’m a lot stronger than I originally thought. I learned how important it is to acknowledge when you’re having a hard time and learn how to take care of yourself. It’s important to ask for help when you need to and to be there for others when they need you.

Senior year: my endgame

This past year has been the most stressful year of my 18 years on this Earth. While the things I did weren’t hard, I had to make some big adult choices this year. My final high school battle has been an internally challenging one: figuring out what I want to do with my life. I haven’t ever really known what I wanted to do with my life. In fact, I have constantly changed my mind about what I want to do.

I had to do a lot of deep thinking to figure out where I want my life to go. I had to really reflect on what I was passionate about. I decided in the end that I don’t know what I want to do with my life just yet and honestly, that’s okay.

I’m not in a place yet where I know exactly what I want to do. I must go on my own journey to find out who I want to be and I’m so ready for that journey to begin when I walk that graduation stage.

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