“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!”

Last weekend I attended my first ever college visit at the University of Dallas in Irving, Dallas.

Before anything let’s get some stuff out of the way:

Yes, it’s a Catholic school.

Yes, it means I might stay in Texas.

Yes, it’s been in the top most ugliest schools in America.

No, it’s not the same as the University of Texas in Dallas.

I stayed the night while my mother went back to the hotel and roomed with an already enrolled student.

The first thing we, including other possible and already enrolled students, did was…play volleyball. And by we I mean they. I made it clear from the get-go that I’m not at all athletically inclined, which they, thank God, respected (you never know, people can be cray).

Once the game ended we all headed out to have dinner at Rathskellers, which is on campus, where there was also a jukebox (which I thought was pretty cool). We sat outside while tunes like Love Shack were blaring on the speakers. By the end of dinner there were all in all ten of us.

Afterwards we headed out to the soccer field on the outskirts of the campus. While half of us played, the other half sat on the sidewalk listening to music and looking at the blue bonnets surrounding the field. Once they were done, we moved on to some night frisbee with a frisbee that lit up.

We then proceeded to head back to the campus, while the students sang Justin Bieber’s “Baby” very very loudly, and went into one of the lounge rooms where they danced on top of the tables. Once they had their fill of that, we went into a different lounge room to play Catchphrase. Which, for those of you who don’t know, is an extremely intense game.

After playing a couple of rounds of Catchphrase all of us went to Club Donna, a portion of the campus that students basically have a rave in with a DJ and strobe lights.

I, however, had not properly slept for the past 24 hours so I was the first to fall and go to bed. Side note: the air conditioning in the dorms are awesome!

After saying goodbye to my host, who was incredibly sweet, I reunited with my mother. We, being the rebels we are, skipped the last event (alumni panel) to get some free hot chocolate and check out some books (there’s a bookstore on campus, by the way).

Another side note: the hot chocolate was amazing.

Overall I really enjoyed my experience in UD even though it was exhausting.

And for those of you who are asking: Yes, I’ll probably attend this university. Oh, by the way I got one of their college tees on sale! It’s super soft.