School has a lifelong impact on us

The Scroll is back! After being gone for the first time since it started in 1965, students were kind of surprised to see that there was no school newspaper. The reason for the cancellation was because not enough students signed up for the class. It was rather sad, but after encouraging people to sign up again, we finally have the paper back just in time for my senior year. I’m the editor in chief this year because I have the most experience, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous to be leading this great group of writers.
I don’t feel as much pressure as the typical senior. From my experience, a lot of seniors are stressed with finding colleges and doing the needed AP classes. I’m already accepted into one of the colleges I want and I have a good, easy-to-handle part time job with a decent enough pay. The thing that sticks out the most to me is that I don’t feel like a senior. I don’t feel like I’ll be graduating in the coming spring or going off to college in less than a year. I’ve been told my entire high school career by teachers, upperclassmen, and even other adults in my life to be careful because highschool flies by really quickly, and I’m now advocating for that because it really does. Part of it was Covid, sure, but it still felt like it was over in the blink of an eye.
My freshman year felt the longest, but Covid really sped it up. The start of quarantine felt kind of like a dream. School had been canceled and an extra long spring break was under way. I spent hours in group zoom calls with my friends and a lot of extra time visiting my mom. My sister spent a few months with us as well because her parents were moving from Pennsylvania back to North Dakota. At the time, I didn’t think about it. I didn’t think about how thousands of people were dying or how small businesses were failing because of their lack of customers. It’s selfish, but I only thought about my time to myself.
A lot of people think like this, I presume. When someone says they miss Covid, they don’t miss the death and the fear, they miss having time to themselves. They miss having the availability for hobbies they thought they’d never have time for or an excuse to finish that project they had been putting off for months. Maybe this is selfish because of the circumstances, but a lot of times people struggle to take care of themselves or take responsibility for their own happiness. When you give someone the freedom to do so, they’re going to want to do that and keep doing that and eventually miss it when it’s taken away.
But then junior year started and it felt especially like a fresh start. Not just because of Covid, but also because I felt like someone new. I went in with a positive attitude and it ended up being my favorite year of high school so far. The best advice I can give you is to have a good time and don’t take things too seriously. Obviously you need to try in your classes and get good grades, but a lot of the time, students make school out to be this live-or-die situation in which one bad grade means the end of the world. I know plenty of high school dropouts and one thing that stuck out to me about them was that they’re all happy and fine with that decision. Going back to what I said before, you should try to graduate with decent enough grades, but you’re still a child and you deserve to have a good time before you’re an adult.
Ultimately, I was kind of sad when junior year ended but I’m trying my hardest to maintain a positive attitude throughout my senior year. I’m taking a lot of electives and my main focus is to have a great time my last year of high school. Although I think I’ll miss high school, I also find myself excited for college. Look forward to the future but don’t get lost in it; live in the present from time to time!