When time flies, it feels like minutes and passes like seconds. You’re oblivious to how fast it moves until you’re here, staring back at the collection of memories that have passed, gone, only living behind a frame.

My time here dwindled from years to months and now, down to its last days. While I can say I’ve been counting down the minutes to graduation, the combination of nostalgia and excitement is something I never anticipated feeling.

I’ll never forget walking in from playing basketball in my backyard; practicing the same thing over and over till I got it right, my patience wearing until I’d snap and storm into the house hot headed, frustrated, ready to punch through a wall. I remember pouting at the kitchen table, I remember angry tears streaming down my face hot like lava and looking across the table at my dad who reflected the opposite energy: cool, calm, and collected.

No words would be exchanged in moments like these–it was an unspoken bond, my resting place, the tunnel I would shoot out of once steam stopped shooting out of my ears.

I’m from a household with strong female role models. Where I learned words are stronger than sticks and stones. I’m the youngest. I’m the shortest. But I’m the fighter. I’m not afraid of high expectations, cracking under the pressure, or failure in general because although the bar is set high, I can’t reach the stars without starting on the ground. It’s from the small moments sitting across from my dad so many years ago, from the lunches packed with so much love from my mom, and the fights with my sister that turned into ice cream runs that ensure me that that I don’t have to look back when I launch into the future–they’ve built me a safety net.

I’ve imagined the last days of high school a thousand times over and over again. I imagined who I would be at this moment, who would I be like… My mom? My sister? The seniors before me?

But now that I’m here, when I look in the mirror, I can’t imagine being like anyone else. I am who I want to be.

As my time here concludes, I think about the small things that have led me to accomplish so much.

Here’s to the inspiration from my teachers that no amount of money can buy, the friendships that will last beyond graduation, the gameday bus rides to basketball games, the car rides to state, the GAPPies, The Norse Star staff, and the humid days in school that made my papers wilt.

Here’s to the goodbyes I will say and the tears I know I will shed when I’ll say them. Here’s to all the good, the bad, and the in between. I wouldn’t change a thing.