When I walked into Freehold High School on the first day of freshman year, I was filled with excitement and nerves – mainly nerves, but the excitement was still present. It was the start of a new book in the series of my life. This year, as I walked into the building on the first day of my senior year, I was filled with nothing but dread, and I wondered, why is that? Initially, I thought maybe it was just regret of the difficult courses I chose, or maybe I was simply mourning the end of summer break. However, after thinking long and hard about it, I realized I was just scared. I am scared. The fact that I’m in my final year of high school terrifies me, because I truly don’t think I’m prepared for what comes next. It’s a sentiment I think I share with many of my classmates. Freshman year was cut short, sophomore year was practically nonexistent because of the pandemic, and although junior year was slightly better, it was anything but normal. I feel we’ve missed the parts of high school where the most self growth occurs, those middle chapters. And now we’re suddenly in the process of college applications and planning our futures. Many of us aren’t ready, but life just keeps moving forward regardless of our uncertainty. 

So my advice to myself, and any other upperclassmen that may be reading this, is to live in the present. There’s nothing we can do about the past, and although we may have to pay some mind to our futures, we can still try to experience the present to its full extent. Time flies too fast for us to spend it on dread and fear, so we should try our best to be content in the current chapters of our lives.