Georgia Kirkendall

Four years ago I wrote an article detailing my experiences as a freshman in high school, and began my first-hand account with the vague sentence “It’s weird, for one thing.” I feel I must reinforce the same idea when considering my final year of high school. I mean, it doesn’t really come as a surprise, does it? Anything new and unknown is bound to look weird and foreign. That doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial, or that it has to be intimidating. If I have learned anything these past years, it’s that assuming the worst automatically sets you up for failure. A challenge can be made 90 percent easier when embraced with the right, positive mindset. 

Honestly, I don’t feel like a senior. Have I really been in high school that long? For some unintelligible reason I never thought about getting this far. As if I’m bound to remain an underclassman in an alternate reality within an infinite time loop. Although, I remember feeling the same way when I was in elementary school, looking up to the giant forms of eighth graders and thinking “There’s no way I’m going to end up that big.” Also, everyone looks basically the same age in high school, and you can never really tell for sure what grade they’re in (except for the poor freshmen, of course). Still, I find myself surprisingly offended when someone doesn’t know I am a senior. Already this year I’ve had two kids ask me if I was a freshman. Maybe it’s because I appear permanently anxious and jittery. And my backpack is constantly bursting at the seams. It beats me how some students can cram all their necessities in tiny designer tote bags. 

Although I cannot claim to have had a normal high school experience, given the wackiness of the Coronavirus, I’ve enjoyed these past few years. Many interesting and informative classes have luckily come my way, and I’ve been able to expand my passion for writing, as well as discovering a hidden talent for running. AP classes have challenged me in such a way that I feel prepared for college, finally having a sense of what it means to “think outside the box.” High school, as promised, has been easier than middle school in the themes of rhythm and comfort. Even so, I’m hoping for even a deeper connection and belonging in my future years in college. And after that, who knows? Life is a constant march towards revealing who we are and what makes us distinctly different.