By the time that it gets to the end of senior year, it feels like nothing could be more stressful than all the last minute planning and preparation for graduation. Seniors are expected to have graduation announcements to hand out to friends, family and teachers, have a party planned for the weekend of graduation to show off all their great accomplishments, have their cap decorated, finish all of their classes and even finish applying for scholarships- all while trying to enjoy the last month of high school. 

Right now, I, along with many other seniors are beginning to feel extremely stressed out with the amount of work and pressure being put on us. After working hard throughout school for the past twelve years, I was expecting my final quarter of high school to be a little more laid back and not as stressful as it is. The past couple months have been filled with dual credit college homework, graduation party planning, scholarship applications and tennis. 

Finally, with less than two weeks left of school, it is beginning to look like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. For a while, I was thinking that all of my hard work was not going to pay off, but within the past two weeks, I have been awarded several scholarships, my editorial writing and my editorial cartooning qualified for the state journalism conference, I am putting the finishing touches on decorations that I am making for my graduation party and the tennis team has been representing really well at different tournaments. All of the lasts that I have had this year, never seemed real until I realized that I am actually done with high school in less than two weeks. 

As graduation continues to creep closer, I have to make sure that I am slowing down and appreciating the friends and good times that I have made at Alliance High School. I am always looking back at my first day of freshman year, when I only had a few friends that went to St. Agnes with me and I had next to no classes with any of them. I had never thought that my time here would go by as fast as it did. 

Despite everyone saying how excited they are to leave high school, I am on the fence about leaving everything behind. I am excited to be able to be out of Alliance and be able to widen my horizons, but I am also nervous for all of the things that are uncertain about the future. My time at AHS has not been ideal by any means, but I would not trade my time here for anything.