Ever sit back and just look at where you are in life? Take a look around and just think, How did I get here? How did this all happen?

It’s as if it was just yesterday we got our schedules and were pushing through the NAI halls for the very first time. Now look at us, sitting down filling out college applications and thinking about life outside of high school. School is really all we have known for the past 12 years, and now we are going to go take on the world outside of the walls of North Allegheny.

People always say to savor your high school years because they will be gone in a flash and you will finally have to grow up. But I honestly can now see what they meant by that. Time went by so quickly and now I am just trying to hold on to the time I have left with the people I have around me. I can only hold on to these small moments for so long because the countdown until graduation has already started. It is a bit of a ways away, but just like high school has been, graduation will be here in a blink of an eye.

Throughout my years here at North Allegheny, I can say that I have definitely learned a lot and see a big difference between how I was as a person freshman year and how I am senior year.

Freshman year, I can remember shaking in my boots as I walked down the hallway to get to my locker. I was scared to talk and scared of what people thought of me, and I tried to alter myself just to fit in with the cool crowd. I learned who was who and allowed myself to fall wherever I would land on the social ladder.

But it was never enough for me. I always wanted more, wanted people to notice me. I tried to dress the part and got to the point where I did not like certain people just because that is who the popular kids did not like. I found myself spending so much time trying to be accepted by them that I lost who I truly was. I was lost in the game of high school, and I kept playing for three years of my life — crying over rumors spread about me, crying over boys that promised me so much but just would end up in a failed relationship and waste of time, losing sleep over friendships that were built on lies, and trying to paint myself to be something that I was not.

Looking back at three years of so much unnecessary worry and drama, now I just sit back and laugh at my younger self. Senior year is here and I have taken my past experiences and learned from them. I’ve learned to accept who I am, care less about what people think, let go of grudges and learn to forgive. I now sit back and allow myself to control who I am. I am friends with the people I chose to be with and let life take its course, living without a care of who is watching my every move.

As well as developing into the person I am today, I also feel that the senior class as a whole has grown up. We all generally get along and come together when needed. We all still have our differences and individually value and look at life differently, but when it comes to school spirit we all put those small things aside and knock down the walls life puts up against us.

So thank you, North Allegheny, for the drama, the anger and tears, the lifelong or short-term friends, but mostly for the school spirit and the feeling of being a part of one big family. Senior year may cause others to feel overwhelmed, but honestly I feel a sudden relief coming over me. I am finishing out high school with light shoulders and I am going to spend this final year living in the moment every day, because one morning I am going to wake up and I will be walking across that stage dressed in cap and gown.