Stacia Tipton, News Editor

Four years ago, I walked into Kearsley High School as a freshman. I didn’t know where my classes were and I saw so many new faces.

Sophomore year I learned that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and that getting my license gave me the freedom I had been waiting for for the previous 16 years of my life.

Chemistry and the SAT hit me hard junior year, but at least I wasn’t an underclassman anymore.

Plus, I was closer to my last day of high school than my first. I was elected Senior Class president that year and I will never be able to thank the Class of 2020 for trusting me to make their senior year the best it could possibly be.

Before I knew it, I was taking senior pictures and watching the sun rise with my class on the first day of our senior year.

Senioritis hit a little sooner than expected and after early October, I was late to school more often than on time (ask Mrs. Angie Ayre if you don’t believe me).

Well, for the first time all year, I realize that it’s actually over.

It wasn’t supposed to end like this, so much was taken away from my class and this is a time of our life that we’ve waited on for years.

We’ve worked and devoted our whole school careers to graduating and we didn’t even get the ceremony. The immense sadness and feeling of loss is indescribable.

That’s something we all know, but I refuse to dwell on the bad and know that the only thing I can do now is move forward.

Before I take that step forward, I have to look back on my senior year one last time.

Throughout the past year, I’ve been asked, nonstop, “Are you happy to be done with high school?”

I know it should be a yes or no question, but it’s not that simple.

Yes, I am happy I won’t have to sit in those classrooms and listen to a teacher lecture me on some irrelevant topic that I will never need to know after high school.

Yes, I am happy I won’t have to set five alarms each morning just to get to school on time . . . for second hour.

Yes, I am happy that I’m finally free and can figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.

But that doesn’t mean that I won’t miss the good stuff.

I’ll miss always having all of my friends at the same place at the same time.

I’ll miss the good teachers, the ones who actually cared how my day was and not just about my test scores.

I’ll miss the student section and watching my best friends win their games.

I’ll miss getting in my car Saturday morning to an obnoxiously loud radio I left on Friday night.

I’ll miss the school dances and the jokes that lasted for weeks afterward.

I’ll miss the study sessions with my best friends where none of us actually studied.

I’ll miss the people who made my four years of high school the best they could possibly be.

So, I guess the next time someone asks, “are you happy to be done with high school?” I will say, “Of course I am, but of course I’m not.”

I am ready for the next step, but before I move forward, I can’t help but look back and thank you all one more time.

Kearsley is my home and has shaped me into the person I am today, which I will be forever thankful for.

The memories will last a life time.