Our 4 Year Road Trip

  Greeting graduates, Oak Hill staff and teachers, (high school was like being stuck in a prison cell drowning at the bottom of the ocean. -Simile) What I mean by that is, drowning in what seems like never ending school work. From the good grades to bad grades and from the good days to the bad days it was quite an experience. 

(Freshman year walking into smelly classrooms and seeing unfamiliar faces, that gross smell from down the hall we call lunch, with the agenda written on board and the desks in single rows. – Imagery.) It was quite a challenge to make new friends as I was home schooled during middle school. At first I didn’t feel like I fit in but then I quickly adjusted to it. That period of adjusting taught me a valuable lesson which is to not be scared when things feel unfamiliar, or having to get out of your comfort zone, but to being open to new experiences and to have a sense of belonging, and feeling enjoyment in different experiences that you didn’t think you would have fun with. Freshman year was the year we all didn’t know where our classes were, what our teachers’ names were because we couldn’t remember, the year where everybody got along because it was a new exciting, scary experience, It was high school. The year went by too fast.

Quickly moving into Sophomore year, we knew how things went since we learned most things when we were freshman. When I was a Sophomore, I had lost most of my friends, but I was left with a few and that’s all I needed. (I was still in my shell -Metaphor), still scared of what was to come as the year went on. I was scared about my new classes and if I was going to pass that year or not. But it was actually more challenging than I thought. They started to treat us more like young adults, and the work was more challenging. But at the end of the year, I had found my future boyfriend, and things still seemed so far away because of summer vacation. I had spent two weeks there making up school work that was past due.

Junior year was a great experience for me! I had more classes with the friends I had made when I was a Sophomore. I had my boyfriend through it all, and I also really enjoyed my classes. The work was even more difficult this time around, and this time, we had to be more serious as we were at the halfway mark of graduating. There were more tests, more formatives, but oddly enough, it was quite easy. (People always say that Junior year is one of the hardest years of your high school career, but I found it pretty easy for the most part. -Irony) From Marine Science to Piano class, it was all easy. It had to be easy enough to not have to go to summer school that year.

Senior year, the one we didn’t think would ever come. This year was like a rollercoaster, what I mean by that is we all went through the scary deadlines, our stress levels were very high, (the tests were yelling at me “turn me in!” – Personification.) We were ultimately fighting for our lives to make it to the end. What helped fighting for my life was turning things in on time. We were pretty much the role models for the lower classmen. 

When we were just like them, just coming into high school we thought we had all the time to figure out what we wanted to do at the end, how 4 years is long enough that we will surely have all the answers. But here we are, one week from graduation and some of us still are not sure where we’ll be heading after graduation but through all the ups and downs in high school, I wouldn’t change a single thing. Congratulations class of 2026, we did it!

“Confetti” by ADoseofShipBoy is licensed under CC BY 2.0.