By definition, graduation signifies the successful completion of a course of study at a school where you receive a degree or diploma. It is a chance to reflect on everything you achieved with the other graduates who made it with you. It’s the first step to life outside high school and towards your future. A step many don’t get to experience.

When I think about graduation, I think of change. My four years are ending, and now it’s off to something new. Something unexpected that I don’t know much about, and that makes me nervous. I had a routine in high school. Now I need to adjust to a new one. Not only that but whether or not I would have someone to share this experience with worried me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start this new chapter alone.

On the other hand, thinking about graduation also makes me excited. It’s a period of change and new adventures. It’s the first step towards a life I could only dream of, and it marks the end of my high school career and the beginning of a whole new journey.

Graduating is like the waterfall at the end of a river. Finishing school a few weeks early is the calm before the storm. It’s the current taking you toward its end. It’s beautiful when you see it from afar as a freshman or a sophomore, but the closer you get, the more you acknowledge your lack of power over the situation and let the waves carry you, the scarier it gets. The anticipation, getting pulled every which way by the current and seeing the edge of something you once watched from afar getting close, it’s terrifying. It makes you think in a situation where you don’t have time to think. It can take your breath away before the water even gets a chance to. Especially since you never know what happens on the other side. You never know if you’ll be able to make it out when you fall. Something so surreal, loud, and beautiful could easily be the death of you, and that thought is exhilarating. It could be the start of so much more. Maybe that’s why we enjoy it so much.