Dear Freshmen: You’re going to miss this. . .

Meghan Yakel, Staff Writer, Journalism I

Dear freshmen,

All of you have heard “these four years go by so fast” from a senior or someone who is out of high school. But, nobody takes it as a piece of advice to enjoy your high school years before they are gone. Before you know it, your class is going to be applying for colleges and graduating, getting ready to start your futures away from this home away from home.

Even as a junior I am starting to realize that this is true, and I am starting to appreciate things in high school a lot more.

Go to as many sporting events as you can, go to as many musicals as you can, participate in as many school functions as you can, and get as much apparel as you can afford. Appreciate that you are able to go to a high school as great as Notre Dame Academy.

From personal experience, I have watched my older sibling go through high school and graduate. He always says he wishes he would have appreciated high school more because it really went by fast. Now, he is trying to do his best and appreciate college a lot more than he did high school because now he realizes that time flies.

At the same time, he knows it is not the same thing as high school, so he always tells me to not take anything for granted, especially when my volleyball team made it to state this year and got all the way to the championship to win the D2 Runner-Up title. I may not have seen the court as much as I would have liked, but it was such an amazing feeling to be on that team and be able to say that I was a part of it all, whether I played a lot or not. I realized this when my brother told me that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I have to be proud and appreciate it while I can, and I did just that during the experience of state.

There are always going to be times in high school where there is drama, you get stressed out because of finals or whatever else is going on in your life, and you get frustrated just because you know that you have to start preparing for your future. But, when you get to be an upperclassman, you start to realize that high school really is the best four years of your life.

So, I am telling you this as a junior who hasn’t experienced all four years but is pretty close. Appreciate your time here, don’t take the education we get, the sports we excel in, and the all-around talent we have in basically everything for granted, because before you know it, it will all just be a memory.

Sincerely,

A student who doesn’t want to grow up