Reflections

The Life of a Junior is:

Incredible
Stressful
Intense
Eye-opening
Strengthing
Self-Discovery
Over (basically).

Damn. It's hard to believe the year is gone. The hours at school each day seem to drag by but the weeks seem to pass without me noticing. Honestly, there are days I still feel like a freshman, not because I'm being immature (hopefully I've grown out of that), but because my mind cannot seem to comprehend that in less than a month it's summer. And summer means that the 8th graders (like my baby sister) are freshmen, prepping for high school. And the annoying freshmen are okay sophomores. And the overconfident sophomores are frazzled juniors. And the burnt out juniors are anticipatory seniors. And thd idgaf seniors are nervously excited college freshman about to leave.

It seems a cycle. And we're about to enter the final phase before it all begins again (for most of us at least). I learned a lot during junior year; about school, about my friends, about myself, about the person I hope to be. And maybe I just think I've figured some of those things out and when I look back in a couple years, I'll laugh about how sure I was then.

Junior year was awful... and awesome. Maybe years are always like that: bittersweet. Freshman and sophomore years had their set of highs and lows too. Some of those seem silly now just like this year's might seem silly later; but right now they feel important.

I learned what was important to me, I lost some friends but gained even more, I figured out that sometimes I really don't know and that that's okay, I fell in love and wasn't able to fall out and I figured that maybe that's okay too, I cared more, I fought hard and found myself, I finally was okay being me.

And maybe this is a cliche high school year. Maybe it sounds silly and naive. Maybe it won't matter years from now. But for now, I just know that Junior year was great; full of more laughter and smiles than tears. It marks us being one step closer to the biggest change that's ever happened to us - college. I'm nervous. And excited. And happy. And sad. And so many other mixed up emotions.

But summer's almost here! And if you know me at all, you know that that's all that matters (that's right! Screw you stupid AP tests!). So I'll stop my rambling and probably study for the stupid AP tests because let's be honest, I really do care. Maybe after they're over, I'll be ready to release my official "screw you school, I'm ready for summer" statement.