720 days.
720 days of school finally finished, albeit with some mild skipping. The time of ringing bells and hallway transitions is coming to a close, and my youth will find itself on new ground.
Some would say high school graduations are bittersweet, and I agree. There is no simpler way of saying it. I can’t say I have completely hated my experiences here, and yet I can’t say there was always a pep in my step either–who can?
Every adolescent fervor came with pubescent stenches and every joke in class came with a homework assignment. There were always push and pull factors to the years here (that’s an AP Human reference), creating a complex period of growth, more physically for others, that acted as both a beginning and end to our youths.
The daily talks and morning grumbles will be dearly missed by more so than just me–I , personally, will feel the loss of standing in line for lunch endlessly just to eat for five minutes.
On a serious note, though–well, not too serious. Nobody likes tears during school hours, you know?–the bonds and kinship we’ve made here have forged a more-than substantial chunk of our lives. The friends I’ve hung out with since middle school have known me through phases I won’t mention, and I’ve watched them grow up from dorks to dweebs.
But, I won’t get to watch them grow up anymore. I won’t get to see them every morning with groggy eyes. I won’t get to laugh in the halls too loud at a joke nobody else should hear. I won’t get to go to McDonald’s for food that I’m not paying for. I won’t get to say “see you tomorrow.”
Because I won’t.
I used to think of school like a prison; it confined me legally and asked of me time and labor. But somewhere along the way, I realized I was thinking of it wrong. I wasn’t wasting my time learning about things I couldn’t give a donkey’s behind about. I was being given time to spend with people I cared about. Of course, some things you never realize until too late. This was one of them.
One day, walking in these halls, we will say our final words to each other. Those words will ring, bouncing about the empty halls with somber letters and unspoken admiration. They will hit the bricked wall and then disappear like we were never there.
We were here. And we were here together.
I will miss the time I spent with my friends. I will miss it a lot.