What can I say other than this was the most hellacious, fun, crappy, upsetting, amazing, stressful, horrific, exciting, scary year of my life… yeah, that pretty much sums it up. No, not really, I’d much rather go into detail.
To start with, I had no idea how stressful my junior year would actually be. With cheering at games, ACT prep, homework in most classes, and doing all that while trying to actually have a life, I guess you can say I was a little wiped out… okay, maybe a lot. But if you asked me if I were to go back and change it, I wouldn’t. Everything I chose to do this year has made me who I am right now, and I’ve learned a lot from everything.
Cheer, for example, taught me responsibility. Most people thing that extra curricular activities is just to have something fun to do during the school year. But cheer is a lot more than that. In cheer, we didn’t catch a ball- we caught people. When sports teams drop the ball, they lose a point. When cheerleaders drop a person, they lose that person. It’s a lot more than your average game of “kick the can”. I also had to make sure to show up to every single game on time, right on the dot- with my hair pulled back, my bow in my hair, my full uniform, pom-poms, etc. Not to mention, we had practice every single school day in the mornings. If that’s not what you call working our BUTTS off, I don’t know what is. Cheer definitely added to my stress, but I loved it. I wouldn’t ever go back and change it.
Another thing that has really grinded my gears this year is college prep, and ACT prep and blah, blah, blah, blah, blahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I’ll be straight forward and honest- I don’t want to grow up. Just thinking about everything I have to do is already turning my brain into a scrambled egg. I think I can hear it sizzling. I was wanting to do sterling scholar for art. I don’t know how well my chances are of getting it because I probably struggled more this year than anyone else going for it. I guess I’ll still try though. I’m not really one to give up. Either way, I’ll still be proud of what I was able to get through in school this year. I might have struggled a lot, but hey- I never gave up. Even when I felt like my future was lost. I’m back in control of that now. If I could give any bit of advice to younger kids, it would be to enjoy their life while they can. When I was younger, I wanted nothing more than to grow up and get away from my house and start my own life. Now that I realize how hard it will be, I would much rather crawl under my bed sheets and never come back out.
A lot of people don’t realize that high school is probably a lot harder for the average girl than it is for boys. We not only have to do our homework, and all that jazz, but we have to look good doing it. Getting ready in the morning wasn’t really worth it to me this year. There was actually one day where I was wearing a t-shirt and sweats with my hair and makeup undone, and I went in to take the PSAT. I had only gotten three hours of sleep the night before. I guess you could call this year my scrounge year. I think I looked my best at prom night. Now THAT was stressful. When a girl gets pushed to bawling her eyes out while trying to get ready, you know how hard it is for one to feel pretty and confident every day. So boys, here’s a bit of advice- never call a girl ugly. You have no idea how hard it is for a lot of them to walk out of their house every morning and face your ignorant self every day. Keep your mouth shut, and be nice.
Basically, this year was… a year to remember. It opened my eyes to everything- and because of everything that happened, I thin I’ll be more prepared to face the things that life will throw at me.
