In less than four months, I will be standing in a white gown in front of 179 of my classmates, giving the farewell address at graduation. Less than four months. As senior class president, it is my duty to give this speech to congratulate the class of 2008, to tell them how amazing the last four years have been, and to wish them luck in moving on. And yet, I feel completely inadequate to do this job. How can I tell my companions for the last four years to move on when I myself am terrified to move on. I don't feel ready to grow up and become independant. I have felt that I am stuck in the life that I'm leading while everyone else is progressing. And until lately, I thought I was alone in feeling this way--until I talked to one of my good friends.
It turns out he felt the same way.
I am trying to understand why we high school seniors put so much pressure on ourselves. We work endlessly to get into college, and then even after we have been accepted, there are APs to study for, much-needed scholarships to apply for, jobs that eat up time that we don't have, participation in clubs, sports, and activities... all while we are trying to find time to enjoy the time we have left with just, being kids. However, I have come to realize that even though all of these tasks that we have (getting good grades, scholarships, etc.) are extremely important, if we just learn to prioritize, we can manage. I can manage. Moving forward in life will be hard; change is one of the scariest things for me to handle. But we just need to take a deep breath, pull on our tennis shoes, and go for it.
In less than four months I will be graduating high school; I still don't feel ready, but I don't think that anyone ever feels ready, so I'm just going to go for it.
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I feel ready. I can't wait to get out of here. I can't wait to go to college and be away from all this High School stuff. But I do agree with you. We should stop killing ourselves to get into college and enjoy these last few months of being kids.
It's an inside joke thing...
it sounds like what you have writen here would be a good start to a speech. Everyone feels scared and unsure and are desperatly trying to find their place without pulling out their hair....use it
Life will change, there will be twists and turns, but you'll get there, where you WANT TO BE. You don't have to have your whole life planned out this second, you can change your mind along the way and be the happier for it. Everyone gets scared before the big changes, you could be 30 and moving cross country and be terrified to leave that which has become familiar to you. The stress of being a highschool senior is not something I would want to repeat, but I will admit, my senior year was the best of highschool. I had the most fun because I cherished every moment I had with people I knew I wouldn't see again for a very long time. Just relax and enjoy your time with friends.