By Andrea Schmidt
Everyone always told me senior year goes fast, so enjoy it while you can. It is supposed to be one of the best years of your life. You are finally the "top dog" in school, and all of the underclasswomen look up to you. You receive privileges others don't and take classes others can't. When I was a freshman, high school seemed like it would go on forever. Four years seemed like an eternity back then. When I was a freshman, I thought the seniors were the coolest. They looked so mature and dignified and wore the coolest clothes. Their hair always looked perfect and everything they did or said sounded right. I couldn't wait to be just like them. Then, after three long years, it was finally my turn.
My goal going into senior year was coming out with no regrets and I wanted to make the best out of my last year of high school. I started talking to girls in my class I didn't know too well and got involved with more activities. I enjoyed every minute of senior year. I felt like a role model to the underclasswomen, and felt so much more grown up. Even though I don't think I have the coolest clothes, my hair doesn't always look good, and everything I do isn't right, I still felt like a walking example on display.
Freshman year, I would refer to someone as "that one girl in our class," but now, everyone knows everyone's name and knows each other so much better. As I walk into my classrooms and up and down the hallways, I realize that come next year, I won't be going to school here. The atmosphere and environment I have become so comfortable with will be replaced with a new and scary one. It amazes me that this coming August I will not be walking through those glass doors to start once again another school year.
I have seen my life as a chapter book. The first chapter of my book consists of the first years of my life. It is vague and not eventful. The second chapter is my grade school career. This chapter consists of silly fights at recess and pre-teen drama in English class. The third chapter is the longest, the deepest and my favorite chapter of the book so far. This chapter is the happiest, but contains many changes in how I think now. I have changed so much over my four high school years. The way I think about situations and talk to others has changed significantly since freshman year. I feel like I have been so naive my whole life. If I had known what I know now, my childhood would've been different. The fourth chapter of my book has yet to be written.
As I sit here writing this, with only ten days of my senior year of high school left, I am in disbelief. As everyone said, senior year goes fast - now I can attest to that. So many friendships were strengthened, laughs shared and memories made. The mentioning of graduation day brings me to tears. I look around at my classmates and after spending four years together, I wonder if I will ever see some of them again. We all became so much closer over the past year and became a very unified class. My senior year has been the best year of my life. I have met new people, experienced new things and have developed into a different person than I was at the beginning of the year. I will remember this for the rest of my life.
Andrea Schmidt is a member of the Notre Dame Academy's graduating Class of 2009.
