Tonight I graduated high school. Photos were taken, hands were shaken, and my diploma was received. I threw my cap and kissed high school goodbye and got the hell out of the Star Plaza theater before the tears started to escape.
It still doesn't feel real. Between prom, senior banquet and my final days as a high-schooler, the cathartic feeling is overbearing. Here I am, a high school graduate, but it's almost as if I have no idea how I got here or how four years flew by in what seemed like a blink of an eye.
As much as I gripe about high school, my finest memories did not go down with the bricks as the old building crumbled to dust. I'll always carry memories of walking laps around C-hall with my friends or playing hide-and-go-seek in the pitch-black library with the pub girls. I'll remember performing in improv shows with the most talented thespians and spending 16 hours at school for tech night rehearsals. I'll miss late-night yearbook epiphanies and even hair-tearing stressful deadline nights. Leaving my life-changing teachers and administrators behind is going to be a tough thing to do, but their wise words and lessons will stick with me for the rest of my life.
So I hung up my cap and put away my chords and medals and turned the page into a new chapter of my life as a high school graduate.
After all, graduating high school is about saying goodbye to the "good" and saying hello to the "great."
