Crowded hallways. Overzealous teachers. Packed lockers aisles. Spending days in class sleeping and days out of class doing nothing in particular with friends for hours. Stressing over finals and tests way more than any reasonable human being should. That’s what Northgate reminds me of.

My time spent here was memorable, to say the least. I think everyone could say that. Whether you’ve spent all four years packing your schedule with sports and extracurriculars to get the most out of it or just coasted from class to class without a care in the world, I’m sure you could attest to the importance of our time here.

I’ve made friendships I hope last post-graduation, through college and beyond. The life lessons I’ve learned dealing with the people here are sure to be the basis of who I’ll be in the future. I’ve gained hobbies, become feverishly passionate about topics I never knew existed before, and spent way too much time cramming for Calc-tests. Sure, not all of it was good, but those moments were few and far between. The good for sure outweighs the bad.

Going into college, and especially to the East Coast, I know things will be a lot different. I won’t know anybody where I’m going. I’ll be another person in a crowd of thousands again, but that’s kind of nice. It’s a fresh start to meet new people and do the things I’ve planned to do that just couldn’t be done in high school. Even if you’re not going to a campus far-away post-grad, I’m sure you already know how different things are going to be. Different is okay. It makes the next four years interesting.