I am a senior at Apex High School. In June of 2024, this year, I will be graduating from high school. I have learned a lot during my time in high school. A lot of lessons and general knowledge I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

My first year of high school was in 2020, during the pandemic. When everyone was quarantined and I was forced to do school online, I learned how to strategize my online time. I figured out how to separate my learning from my gaming, and that was vital to my general success for high school.

My second year felt like my first year of high school. I wore a mask the entire time because the risk of getting sick was still too high to go back to normal immediately. It felt like all of the tv shows and cartoons I watched that were based around high school were overselling the idea of it. At the time high school just felt like a bigger middle school.

My third year was mainly me getting through the year. It was also when I met my current best friend. I took a creative writing class, and in it I both learned a lot about writing and met one of the influential people in my life. I also took my second Spanish class, which sparked my love for the language and my will to learn more.

My fourth year was focused on finishing all of my credits I needed to graduate. It was also when a lot of complicated school transferring happened. All I will say is that I’ve gone to three different high schools. I took a lot of art classes and gained a lot of experience with art mediums that I wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t. 

I’ve learned a lot during my high school years. I can’t tell if I’ve learned more or less than I did during middle school, but I do know that it’s been an experience. The future is far too bright to see, but hopefully the landing pad that high school has built for me will help me fly into the sunset. Or another obscure metaphor to describe my hope for the future.