Four years. Forty-eight months. One thousand four hundred sixty-one days. Well, this really isn’t all accurate to describe my experience in high school. COVID-19 cut my freshman year short, and properly resuming in person learning Junior year. However, even though the circumstances weren’t what I planned, high school was definitely a rollercoaster.

From questionable school meat, the passion and determination of my teammates faces on the volleyball court, tears shed over AP homework, and the abundant laughs shared between classmates and friends, my experience was unforgettable.

Entering as a fourteen-year-old girl who thought she was all and more, I got humbled fast. I had to navigate where I belonged and discover my true self. Trying to fit in with the wrong crowds ended with groundations and personal dissatisfactory. I knew I was determined to enroll into a four-year university, but that was “far away and nothing to worry about.” How can that teenage girl be responsible enough to figure herself out in this big world?

West High is proud of their diverse student body, qualified and sincere teachers, and community. I believe this statement true. Meeting kind-hearted and driven peers in my junior year motivated myself to find out passion and crowd. Friendsgiving with Project Smile, hyping up my friends at prom, straight-up conversations with my favorite, Mr. Sundquist, is what West offered me. To learn we were more than a status-quo and expand not only our perspectives but also expand our horizons.

Now entering into University of California, Berkeley, I will take the lessons I have learned and apply them into the “big girl world.”

From dumb fourteen-year-old who thought VSCO was it to a seventeen year old girl living the radiance, as claimed by Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift. I will miss my school and teachers, but this bittersweet moment is a transition that we can’t stop.

As Dr. Taylor Swift said, “You’re on your own kid. You always have been.”