
“We, the Senior Class
of
Memorial High School,
proudly announce our
Graduation Ceremony
Saturday afternoon, May twenty-seventh
Two Thousand Seventeen
one o’clock
Don Coleman Coliseum
1050 Dairy Ashford
Houston, Texas 77079″


It has been over a week since I graduated from high school and it still hasn’t sunk in yet.
I remember the lines and lines of teens Snapchatting and babbling and hugging one another as we sweat in our caps and gowns.
The feeling of being in a fishbowl surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people.
The coliseum was filled with the friends and families of about 630 students, waving maniacally with their handmade posters and joyous clapping.



There were a few speeches given at the start of the ceremony. I admit that I didn’t know most of the people that were speaking… All I know is that they held some sort of important position in the school district. Apart from them two of our eighteen valedictorians spoke as well.
Out of all the speeches made only two things stood out to me:
The mention of our deceased classmate, Kobi Pickett (I didn’t really know her but bless her soul), who passed during our sophomore year,
and the mention of a quote by Ellen DeGeneres:
“Never follow anyone else’s path, unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. Then by all means follow that path.”
It still hasn’t hit me that I’m attending college in the fall and that I won’t see my friends and family on a daily basis anymore.
I also have not cried yet.
A friend of mine cried ten times on our last day of school (yes I actually counted). I, along with maybe one or two of my friends, did not cry at all. We talked about how inhuman we felt compared to our other friends who bawled frequently. But I suppose I’ll cry when I officially move into the University of Dallas in August. It’ll hit me when my mother and I say goodbye (don’t start crying Momma Bear!).



Overall I’m excited at the prospect of attending college and officially graduating from high school.
From the classes with a quiz and test every week, to the pressures of trying to be in at least the Top 15% and above (I was in the Top 20%; I just missed it grrr), to discerning what your rank is, then trying to get the AP scores you need/want, to blah blah blah blah …..
It was a struggle not just because of the competitive nature high school establishes, but also the feeling of inferiority that comes with it when you think others are succeeding whereas you are not.
But regardless of how tough it was, I, and my fellow classmates, stuck to it and made it!
With these last words a valedictorian of ours said:
“Let’s live!”

