Growing Up

Grade twelve year is unlike any other. Here are a few things you should know. It won't hit you when you wake up for your last first day of school. It won't hit you as you walk into the grade twelve locker hallway for the first time as an official grade twelve. It won't hit you when you cheer at your last volleyball game and attend your last basketball game. It won't hit you as you fill out the countless college applications. It won't hit you as you write that generic essay letter that you try to use for all your applications. It won't hit you as your college friends return for Christmas break and give you all their advice. It won't hit you as you celebrate New Year's with the friends you have known since childhood. You won't feel it when you are having the time of your life at your last spring break. When May finally comes around and you realize that it is your last Grad, but you don't really feel it when you are there having the time of your life. You begin to realize it at Graduation when you look around and realize that you will never see half of these people again. You will begin to see it more over the summer when everyone is getting their roommates, class schedules, and going to orientation. It still hasn't fully hit you when you are sitting in your room packing up the past 18 years of your life, laughing with your best friend about all the stupid stuff you've done. You might feel it the morning you leave for college as that it is the last time you will see your room, your parents, and your best friend for like 3 months. It will finally hit you when you are sitting in your dorm room with a perfect stranger, that you have to live with for the next year. Please, Please, PLEASE make every moment of your grade twelve year count, you only get to do it once. College will be a lot of fun, but in the meantime, jump at every opportunity you get to do anything that you have ever wanted to do. Spend as much time with friends as possible, for it will not be long until you meet new people and inevitably grow apart.