So this is it, huh?

If you are an avid reader of The Jag, and I know you are, then you will recall that in the first issue of the 2017-2018 school year my column regarded never taking a day for granted. I told everyone to seize every day, and live every day to the absolute fullest. Now, I doubt any of us can truly say we did. Also in my first column, I mentioned a quote from Andy Bernard, a character from “The Office.” The quote was as follows: “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” I said to try and realize that you’re in the good old days so you’re more ready and okay with leaving them behind. I can say with full confidence, that even if you did recognize that you are in the good old days, it still hurts a little bit to leave them.

Going in to this year and throughout the year, I have heard numerous things. Things like, “I can’t wait to get out of here,” “I can’t wait to leave Blue Springs behind,” “I cannot stand this school, and am so glad I’m leaving it.” I have never been one of those people. I know how much I’ll miss high school when it’s over. I know most of the people who said those things will too. These years have formed and shaped us into who we will become. That is a beautiful thing.

It all seems so very simple. I go to Blue Springs South because of living in the district. I get a schedule that was assigned to me, and then I get a seat in that class. But, no matter how I got to this school, no matter how I got into those classes, no matter how I found those seats, I, like every other human, have the ability to make this place home. And that’s why South seems so wonderful. It has been my home. It has become my home over the last few years, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Going into freshman year, I had a core group of friends. The people who would stay together for life. Now, I have about the same amount of friends, but very few of them are the same people. We’ve grown together, and we have grown apart. There are people in my life now, that had you asked me going into freshman year, I never would’ve expected. There are people who I used to talk to every day who I only say “Hi” to every month or so. Regardless, I am as happy as I have ever been. The people I have surrounded myself with are amazing, and I am so glad that I have done so.

These halls, I’ve seen them full. I’ve seen them empty. I’ve heard them obnoxiously loud, and I’ve heard them in a saddening silence. I can truly say that the last three years of my life would not have been better spent anywhere else. The people in this building, the teachers, the administration, the janitors, the lunch ladies, every single one of them, have made my high school experience amazing.

Graduating will be the most bittersweet day of my life. I’m starting my life, hopefully full of happiness with memories to be made, and I’m leaving a life in which memories are all I have left. Nevertheless, I am ready for my new beginning. I am ready to become the man I have always dreamt of becoming, I am ready to start anew. Only at the end of the end of something beautiful can you begin something even more so.