It’s kind of weird to think that I would be sitting in my room, typing my own senior goodbye, when I distinctly remember reading these exact words from the seniors last year. I remember picturing myself at this exact moment in the past, and all of the things I wanted to say and tell others like “what you should and shouldn’t do in high school,” but now that it is suddenly time for me to say my own farewell to the students and faculty here who have been with me, and all of us, through our “troubling” teenage years.
I can’t say that I had the most exciting and eventful high school career, and I can’t say that I was able to do even half of what I had wanted to do, like join a sport. I’m sure for those that know me, the notion of me willingly doing any physical activity is comical enough, let alone a sport. Regardless, all I can say is that Temple City High School has been good to me when I needed it.
My experience within these worn brick walls has taught me, to put it bluntly, to “suck it up and grow up.” I’ve experienced numerous disappoints and failures, and have been faced with the two options to either try again with the risk of failing, or to not try at all. I can honestly say that there have been many times where I have simply given up. Yet, sometimes I’ve been stupid enough and just barreled head first without fear.
I’ve come to realize two things as my last year comes to a close. One, respect is earned not given, and two, success tastes a whole lot sweeter after you have failed. If not for that, I would have never tried out for Rampage again my junior year, nor would I have discovered the joy I find in writing. Rather than the failures, I will remember my high school experience more for the things that I did try and do, and the forged relationships with some amazing people that have come out from all of it. But more than anything, it has provided me with the peaceful four years that I needed after leaving middle school. I entered as a freshman, a group of close friends, glasses, and overly unethusiastic.
Contrasting with my senior year, where I would like to hope that I have somewhat overcome that awkward phase, with a handful of friends that I can still see myself interacting with even during and out of college. I can’t anticipate how university life is compare to high school, nor do I hope ten years from now that high school will be the best time of my life, but it has pushed me to accept my own flaws and forged my own self value and opinion, something I would have been unable to find otherwise.
TCHS School Newspaper