• Footsteps rushing. Voices overlapping. People murmuring.



    I hear these noises just a few feet away from the gate. As I enter, a sea of unfamiliar faces was scattered everywhere like spilled beans. I could break down because of shyness but I guess it’s too early for such hilarious embarrassment. Most of the people are socializing, while some are stunned and at a loss for their words just like me. Suddenly, the bell rang. I don’t know what just happened but it just came to my mind that it may be the sign that my high school life just started.

    I once considered it as a baptism of fire, yet everything went gradually fast. Welcomed and accepted, I met a bunch of new and friendly people, moreover, experienced totally brand new things. Life was way beyond compare.

    Teachers trained us regarding academics, but in the end, I realized that we served as our own dean with regards of understanding life. For me, Physics, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra, Statistics, and Trigonometry are just minor subjects in high school. The true subject matter is the essence of life. We learned to be independent when we go to different places without adult supervision. We beat our brains out in managing decision makings like: “Who will I go with in the coming JS prom?” We held enormous number of secrets, however only few are left untold. We got brave enough to answer back to parents and teachers. We developed our strategy in cheating and making mini-lectures. We learned how to lie, and later, get so deaf with our own small voice of conscience. We also learned how to mingle and socialize. We got so used in cramming that it became a part of our daily life as a student. We understood the value of money after we lost big time in a game of immature gamble. And later will bet bigger twice as much as before. We learned how to break the rules. We showed high spirits that neither parents nor teacher can stop. We learned how to party like animals and still, act maturely. We sipped our first beers and smoked our first weeds. All that’s left to do is get naked and run across the streets like crazy maniacs. We certainly know rights from wrongs, but we just love living life in the edge.

    Furthermore, we learned how to love and had our hearts broken; experience damaged friendships; overcome ups and downs; face heavy consequences; and still stand up and defend the right thing. You can definitely say that we can never have too much fun but don’t ever think that we are always sitting pretty at the top of the world. We were once a beginner of the game called life, now we are slowly learning to whoop it up like we made the game ourselves.

    I guess that’s the greatest part of being a high school student. We didn’t mean to disturb adults. We do these insane and idiotic things just because we enjoy it and we are expecting pretty soon that we will just be another irritated adult who live life in desperately scolding wild teenagers.

    But still, time won’t stop and we have to open new doors. College life awaits and all of those things we lived in high school will just be another memory. I didn’t mean that college is no fun at all. Actually it’s totally an exciting new chapter of life. It’s just that college is more serious and involves great maturity. Acting like a kid is way enjoyable because you are innocent and carefree. You can do juvenile things yet people will understand because they know you are still young. But entering college is just like you’ve gone from baby to adult with just a blink of an eye.

    Out of a sudden, I saw my self walking up the stage with a huge crowd in front. I was formally dressed to the nines, wearing toga and a graduation cap. I saw my proud and teary-eyed parents on the stage along with a few teachers. As the diploma was handed, I felt mixing emotions nobody could imagine. I could swim in the waters of my overflowing happiness because I have accomplished what I’ve been struggling for four years. I could just run across the halls of our school and scream at the top of my lungs.

    It is so unimaginable how things went so fast. It was like yesterday, I saw a terrifyingly great number of odd faces. Now those faces are the ones who I’m crying with because we have to go on our separate ways. Nevertheless we already knew from the start that this time will come.

    No. We will, beyond any doubt, reach for the stars but still won’t let go. We will hold on to these fantasies forever and cherish it for life. We will never forget each other and the foolish things we fancy most. I will always look back at the best four years of my life where I learned how to work as if don’t need the money; love like I’ve never been hurt before; and dance like nobody’s watching.