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These last four years have went by quick.  Some good times, some bad times, stressful times, and humorous times.  I’ve grown and learned these past four years and wouldn’t change it for the world.  Academically, I’ve become a better student.  I’ve learned how to study better and manage my time wiser.  My grades have improved over the years.  I’ve always been one to find my grades important but I’ve learned just how important they are over the years.  I have achieved my academic goals of becoming an Illinois State Scholar, and Valedictorian.

Emotionally, I feel as if I am just fine.  I’d say more stressed than usual, but it isn’t anything that I can’t handle.  Senior year has been the hardest for me.  Second semester of my senior year has been the most stressful of them all.  Between managing my college classes which were medical terminology, and composition, filling out many scholarships, working, being in a sport, and managing all of my high school classes, it’s taken a toll on me.  It’s nothing that I haven’t been able to handle though.  As I’m typing this during the last week of my high school career here at PHS, I’m still drowning in work that needs done.  Story of my life.  High school has been an endless cycle of “I just have to make it through the week.”

Socially, by the end of my senior year, I got even closer with friends that I have been friends with since kindergarten.  I think I’ve lost brain cells from them but I love them to death.  I wouldn’t change that friendship for the world.  It’s provided me with lots of laughs and a lifetime of memories.  Coming from a small school has allowed this to happen.  It makes me consider myself lucky for growing up in such a small school and community.  Being a cheerleader for OPH all four years of high school has allowed me to branch out and make friends that I would not have made friends with if our schools hadn’t combined for sports.  I feel as if I have grown as a person socially because of the opportunities I have gotten in high school.

It’s T-3 days until my last day of high school and it’s beginning to hit me that it’s abruptly coming to an end.  I’ve learned and grown as a person, made lifelong friends, and had lots of fun along the way.  Here’s to the good times and the many more to come.