Farewell

By: Johanna Mathieu

This being the last article I ever write for the Blaze, I figured I'd tell y'all a little bit about the things I've been thinking about during the past month or so.

Right now, all that pops into my head is the song from The Sound of Music "So-long, farewell, auf weidershen goodbye… Adieu, to you and you and you." Yes, it is sappy but you know what? I'm really looking forward to graduation. I want to move on and I'm incredibly anxious for next year but I can't help but realize that I won't forget high school (obviously) and don't want to forget it (which is the important thing). Would I do it all over again? Probably not. However, that's not because I don't want to relive it but because I don't want to change a single thing. I'd like to remember my years at good ol' LHS just they way they are.

Driving home from the prom this year, I couldn't help but remark on how different my life would be right now if I had done a few things differently. Try thinking about that sometime because it is really quite scary. The friends we've met, the classes we've taken, and the clubs we've joined have all shaped us. But you know what? The people we haven't met, the classes we haven't taken, and the clubs we haven't joined are just as important in our perception of our high school years. A quote that I've heard a million times is something to the effect of, "You seldom regret the things you do but you always regret the things you don't do." That's what I've based my experiences in high school on and I just can't (don't want to) imagine if I have never…

...enough looking back. I think every senior now realizes that looking forward and choosing a future can't be helped. I'm scared. I worry about not being able live on my own and I worry about losing track of people but these both things won't happen unless I let them happen. I'm not a believer in letting bygones be bygones. We will decide what will happen to us in the future just as we have decided what has already happened to us.

While the last few weeks of school are mellowing out there is a lot more time to think about what's happened and what's to come. They say high school is a time in your life when you can be silly. They say that people look back on high school and laugh about how foolish they were. They say that high school is a stage. Maybe it is. Maybe it's a growing time. Maybe we will look back on our experiences and laugh. But you know what? This has been 4 years of our lives and I think that high school is more important than merely a goofy memory.

So farewell to the underclassmen, the teachers, the seniors I will never see again after project grad, and LHS itself. As a freshman you think you can't wait to graduate, and as a senior you can't wait to graduate either but you've picked up somethings along the way-- a couple yearbooks, experiences, memories, friendships, knowledge, and an understanding of what high school truly does to a person.