Time flies FAST. I can’t believe the day I have literally been waiting for four years for has finally come. Senior year has come to an end and in less than two weeks, we will be walking across the stage. I have watched both my brothers walk across the stage and it feels really good to know that this time it’ll be me.

Time went by so fast that it feels like I should be going into my senior year rather than leaving it. I still remember my first day of high school. I came into Watkins Mill like a lost puppy. I had a little trouble finding my way around to classes, and I didn’t know many people because everyone I was close with in middle school had gone their separate ways. But, as the years went by, things got better and I am happy to have made great relationships as well as lifelong friendships. 

I still remember my freshman year and having Ms. Starr as an English teacher. Sorry to all the current freshman here and the upcoming ones who will never get to experience Ms. Starr as their teacher. It’s because of her and her endless criticisms on my essays that I really improved in my writing. Don’t get me wrong, she was a TOUGH teacher, and it was not until my second semester that I really appreciated having her my freshman year.

Another person I would like to truly thank is Mrs. Confino who, when I first joined the newspaper staff, I knew as Ms. Goodman. Well first, I should PROBABLY give the credit to her because if it wasn’t for her and her huge interest in media and journalism, I would not even be in newspaper right now.

I’d like to thank Mrs. Confino for a great experience these past three years on the newspaper staff. When I first started in sophomore year, it was just an intro class first semester and I still remember second semester coming and her telling us that we would now be writing for the school newspaper.  I’m not going to lie, I was nervous and I was not confident in my writing skills. But by junior year, she was assigning me three articles altogether at once.

I am going to be honest, I was one of the kids on the staff who would turn in the article a week after she wanted it done (*Cough cough* this reflection), BUT because of that I made sure the articles were my best work.

The newspaper has gone from being a paper newspaper, which was published every quarter, to an online one in which we have an article published every day, and I am glad to be leaving the newspaper staff seeing the big accomplishments they have made since I first joined sophomore year.

One of piece of advice is DO WELL all throughout your years here at Watkins Mill. If there’s anything I regret, it’s challenging myself freshman and sophomore year. I signed up for classes I THOUGHT I could do well in, *cough cough* Ms. Starr,  and it just brought my GPA down.  Don’t sign up for any class you can’t do well in because it will affect your GPA and that’ll affect the time for college applications. I think my problem was I wasn’t confident in what my capabilities were.

You’re probably thinking that by the time I got to sophomore year I learned my lesson, but no, it was by the time junior year came around that I changed myself. BECAUSE I changed myself, my GPA was great all four quarters of junior year.

I’m not going to lie to you. No matter how easy you make it for yourself when senior year comes around, it is STILL going to be hard.  It is your final year of high school and, along with your classes, there’s still college applications, scholarships, essays, and most importantly, keeping your grades up because colleges actually care about how you do your senior year and can easily take away your acceptance letter.

One thing I can say right now that I am proud of myself for is that I did not catch myself with any drama. It’s a different story to help your friends but I made sure I myself didn’t get caught up in it.

So, another piece of advice for you all is, do not get caught up in all of that during your time in high school. It’ll just bring you down as well as your grades. It’s always possible to manage your school work as well as your drama, depending on the person, but my recommendation is don’t. All the drama that happens in high school is not worth your time and you all have the potential to do big things, but that won’t happen if you allow drama to become an obstacle.

High school has definitely changed me throughout the years, and I have really improved my personality. Even though I made some mistakes (okay, not just SOME), so does everyone else. High school had its ups and downs, but these past four years have been amazing and it definitely gives me a bittersweet feeling to think that I am leaving. I’m thankful for everyone and everything I learned in high school. which has definitely prepared me enough to help go off to college.

To bring this reflection to an end, my final thought to you is don’t just go through high school to be done with it; spend your next four years in high school wisely. Do as many things as you can to make the experience great, so you can leave high school knowing you had a good four years.