The final countdown

     The Class of 2021 has come a long way from the little kids that we used to be. It’s now our senior year and we only have a few months left to enjoy it.

     Our expectations were set pretty high at the start of the year and rightfully so. This class has spent the last four years dreaming of the day that we graduate and walking into the world to start our lives. However, like many things in life, our expectations don’t always line up with the true reality that is high school. 

     Every day we understand a bit more that “this is it.” It seems like it would be a weird thing to say or think, but everyday there is this enlightened moment where every student in the Class of 2021 thinks to themselves “Whoa. I’m a senior. This is my last year of high school before I step out into the world.” 

     As we were growing into the people that we are now, we often heard previous seniors talk about missing different aspects of the place that they reside in before moving onto somewhere else.

     Personally, this is something that I have been trying to avoid. The thought of graduating and moving on seemed to be an easy thing to deal with due to the fact that there isn’t much to do in our small town. A

    Any student would always choose New York City over Clayton, Indiana because there is so much more to experience there. However this is only if you go by what you hear from the people that live here. 

     But, this is our home, the place where we all grew up and worked hard to become the people that we are. It is expected to have nostalgic feelings form along with the thought of leaving behind our home, families, and friends. 

     Despite any attempts to believe otherwise, things will be different no matter where we end up. We won’t be here to see the same Jon Mitchell sign on the way to school, we won’t be here to be in the comfort of our families arms when we need them and we won’t be together anymore to hold each other up when things at school get tough. When we go off to college, trade school or wherever we end up, things will be completely different from what we know now. 

     Graduating and moving away can be something that we look at with a good mix of apprehension and eagerness. Most of us have always dreamed of living in our own place, having a job and earning our own money.

     But none of us tend to think about the fact that right now is our last chance to spend our time with our families and friends. We tend to ask ourselves if we have taken advantage of the time we have had. It’s always fun to think about being independent and responsible. The sad reality of it all though is that we won’t ever be able to go back. 

     Every single day our future becomes more and more real. The idea and image that we have of college and our lives after starts to disappear from our dreams and become one of our realities. Things are nostalgic but, we have been getting ready for this day for four years now and maybe, just maybe, we might actually have a chance.