Within the past four years, I’ve learned a lot. I haven’t just learned about sonnets, matrices or Reconstruction, but I’ve learned how much people change, especially in high school.

I’ve grown up with the same group of friends essentially since first grade. Seeing how everyone has changed over the past 12 years has been an amazing experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for

anything.

However, we’re different people now, and our dynamic isn’t the same as it used to be. We’ve all become different people, and it makes our relationships look a little different, especially since we may not be seeing much of each other after graduation.

The song I’ve chosen for this issue, “Over Now” by Alice in Chains, is about acceptance of a situation that has come to an end. Endings are a natural part of life, and it’s foolish to resist them. 

It’s weird experiencing so much change, but the lyric I selected for this issue captures it perfectly: “Yeah, it’s over now, but I can breathe somehow.”

I don’t know that I could say I wanted our friend group to change after we leave, but it’s already changing, and I can say I’ve accepted and even embraced it in some cases. 

This year, I’ve been able to focus a lot more on the subjects that I am most passionate about and explore my future with those. I’ve found that I love history and well, journalism, of course, but not all of my friends do, so this dynamic shift has given us the space to explore ourselves and figure out what we like and dislike. 

Past that, I’ve actually found myself branching out and befriending people I wouldn’t normally. I’ve taken a couple of freshmen under my wing this year, and I’m so glad I did. Mariah and Helen have made my last year of high school almost an entirely different experience than I expected, and I couldn’t be more grateful for them. 

I’ve met many more people that already play a huge part in my life, and I don’t know if I would be able to say that if I didn’t take the time this year to explore myself. 

Change is difficult and oftentimes not fun. Sure, it’ll be weird not having the same group of people to talk to, but with all the changes, it feels like I can breathe somehow.