Crowds of people. Red and white balloons. Laughter and tears. Such were the overwhelming surroundings of our Senior send-off assembly today. For the seemingly insignificant span of a few precious minutes, my entire graduating class felt like a true family, and we all recollected the past four years with bittersweet emotions flooding our hearts as we said goodbye to the high school we know all too well. It’s pretty funny really; throughout my time at Kalani, I loved my friends, but the “high school experience” I was so ready for just wouldn’t come, masked instead by the peeling paint on the classroom walls and the lack of airconditioning we all were constantly complaining about. It’s like I’m going through a really bad break up right now, not knowing just how I loved high school until it’s gone and only memories remain. That is one human tendency I’m not too happy with; taking things for granted seems to happen much too often. But it’s happened yet again, and prom and graduation aren’t very far away now. It’s crazy how this is all happening, how we are now being expected to part from the people we’ve been with for years, some friends since elementary school, to “grow up” and become “responsible adults.” Yes, I’ve planned on doing that eventually, but certainly not now. I’m still a kid for god’s sake, and as a very clever boy once said, “I won’t grow up.” Regardless, I’m going through the motions of doing so, experiencing these last few moments with the peers I love– and even those I don’t– in kind of a detatched haize of denial, as if it isn’t really me getting older but some strange part I’m playing. And I’m here now, in a nice cafe with a cup of London Fog beside me, looking back at my school years, and at the past nine months of my senior year, wondering where the hell the time has gone. Already four years ago, I was biking together with my dad to an intimidating place called high school, insisting he come with me so I know the way on my first day. And just this year, I went on an amazing trip with my band that I will never forget, playing in a music festival with musicians so amazing you couldn’t believe it and feeling timelessness in the music we played there. Yet, what is timelessness? Time still goes on, even if it is a human invention. We all just have to enjoy it as it passes.
Sorry for the sentimental post; I’m going to be a new person tomorrow. As I said earlier, goodbye high school, and hello the rest of my life.
JW Grand 