In my senior year of high school, I had quite possibly the best English teacher in the nation. (I'm not even kidding though, she was legit.) We had this one really great section where we had to write columns on whatever we wanted. This was my last one before graduating.
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Streetcorner Symphony
“It’s morning, I wake up –
The taste of summer sweetness on my mind…”
With only six days left until graduation, these words (in some form or another) can’t seem to escape my brain. Even though I’m going to dread setting foot outside into the sweltering 90 degree weather, I’m excited for freedom, fun, and that last hurrah with friends that this summer will undoubtedly bring.
But there’s something still holding me back…
In my four years at TJ, I don’t think I’ve ever been as busy as I’ve been this past month. After getting into college, everything was supposed to be easy as pie. I had dreams of doing minimal work, watching movies during classes, and relaxing every day after school with my friends. As always, I was completely wrong. Teachers kept piling it on, finding any and every reason to give us work. It got to be so extreme that everything, even non-school things, started to feel like little monsters ganging up on me, plotting and scheming to take me down. My head was constantly spinning with a list of things that I needed to do. My brain was screaming “Finish your tech lab project!” and “You’d better buy prom shoes tomorrow or you’ll run out of time” and my all-time favorite “You know there’s absolutely no way you’re going to sleep tonight, right? You have a project due tomorrow!” At one point, I was physically aching just thinking about all of my obligations. I didn’t think we’d ever make it to the last week of school, the light at the end of the tunnel.
“…We’ll make it through this somehow
And we’ll paint the perfect picture
All the colors of this world will run together…”
This was the only way I was able to survive. I told myself that we had come so far and that we had only a little left to go. Now, we’re more or less there. Three more school days, a graduation rehearsal (or two), senior picnic, and a million graduation parties are the only things stand between us and what we’ve been working toward for the last 18 years. Adults are always saying “Where does the time go?” and “They’re growing up so fast!” And (for once), they’re right. Right now I’m looking back at yearbooks from middle school and art projects from elementary school thinking, This wasn’t so long ago. I can remember vividly my 7th birthday party and the field trip we took in 7th grade. I can remember 9 years of church Christmas plays and my 9th grade biology teacher. I can even remember begging my sister to teach me how to write in cursive and how she got in trouble when she refused.
So I wonder: What will I accomplish in these next short 18 years? What moments will I remember? What faces will unexpectedly stand out when I look over my life thus far?
“…I may never find the meaning of life
But for this moment I am fine…”
Words: 501
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