Senior Reflection #1- looking for the singing bees

It seems weird to me that despite having five AP classes and applying to college and getting injured and still trying to play sports and be active in choir, this year was possibly my happiest so far.  Maybe I can only say that because it's almost over, and I've almost managed to block the homework of first semester from my memory, but I think it's much more than my schoolwork being nearly over.  I think this is the first year I've felt good at being myself.  This is probably too personal for a government class assignment, but I don't care. I knew about two people upon entering high school, and if I was going to rank my middle school (a private school) on preparing me to be a functioning individual socially, I would give it like a 2 out of 10. Less than twenty of the same people in your class for eight years is pretty significant when you think about how much kids are affected by their peers. My peers were a strange collection of individuals. I loved them anyway, of course. However, needless to say, high school was a big change. And that's not even factoring in the part about me not getting to wear uniforms anymore (I had to pick out my clothes and figure out how to buy things I would like for more than an hour). I thought Mean Girls was a lot more valid of a portrayal of modern public high school than I should have, and freshman and sophomore years are kind of just blurs in the back of my mind.  I don't really think my memory is missing much. 

So I'm looking back and thinking how different I was and how much I doubted myself, and the person I used to be doesn't seem like whoever I've become and am working on becoming now. I couldn't imagine having better friends. I know what I believe in. I'm comfortable, confident, and happy.  I'm scared of losing this comfort next year; I'll be all alone again in one of the biggest cities in the world. But more than scared, I'm excited.  All of the change of coming to Herndon was difficult to say the least, but being fourteen isn't really that great either, so I can't imagine it being quite the same.  Even so, if the discomfort gives me a chance to grow in my next four years as much as I did in the last four, it'll be beyond worth it. Life is great. I'm ready for it all.

"She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.  Where were the singing bees for her?" 

-Zora Neal Hurston, Barnard College graduate and author of Their Eyes Were Watching God