I could tell there was a difference in this school year before the first tardy bell even rang, before I had even walked into the doors of our high school. My usual turning stomach and anxiety caused by the first day of school didn’t make an appearance; I didn’t feel an ounce of nervousness or dread to be starting an entire nine months of late nights full of countless homework assignments, five alarms to drag me from my 6 hours of sleep every morning, or to face the sometimes awful reality of dealing with hundreds of people every day. I felt like there was no need to worry about anything, like everything would work itself out. Let’s face it, having three core classes shouldn’t be too difficult. I knew most of my teachers, I had friends to rely on, and I had heard that senior year was easy and full of off-periods. But it is also the year that we are expected to grow up, take responsibility, make that life-changing decision by the middle of the year, and when time seems to disappear faster than you know. As soon as you’re in that last year, it’s like a switch in your brain occurs, a mental shift takes place, changing so much of your life and influencing what is soon to come.

I felt more confident than ever in myself and my abilities to do more than well in all my classes and to talk to strangers or those people that I’ve always seen in the hallways but never had conversations with. I’m not sure if this will power drive will still be kicking by the end of the second semester, when I’m sure the so called senioritis will have kicked in, but for now, it’s pushed me through with full force. Not to mention, getting to leave early due to those beloved off-periods makes your load seem a whole lot lighter.

Even though this year so far has been simple and easy, I’m almost hesitant for it to pass by quickly. There is an inevitable ending impending this school year. Whatever that means for each of us, it’s coming, and with it casts change, a word or thought that might make some of us uncomfortably shift. But that also means excitement and new; new lives, people, places we live, new found passions and goals. Our senior year is a path toward that future and those imminent changes in routines we’ve cultivated for our entire short lives, sometimes in the same perpetual town.

I’m very interested to see what this year has to bring, but I’m also reminded that most things that happen in our lives are our choices and our decisions that lead us to where we end up and what happens along the way. So, this year I will choose to be proactive, to be happy, to be confident, to take every opportunity that comes to me and make the very best of it. I can do this; each and every one of us is capable. We can!