Y’all, it’s finally here. Four years of practicing lines for pep sessions, long nights studying and going to bed at 1:00 a.m. after long baseball games are in my rearview mirror and my future at college is at the forefront. But as I transfer into the next phase of my life, I can take time to look back.

It was 2013. On my first day of kindergarten, I was naive to the fact that this was going to fly by. It’s crazy to think that that was almost 13 years ago. After many school bus rides in the morning and many many pickup football games that usually got shut down, elementary was the time of my life. Then middle school came around and, I hit a road block. The pandemic really set me back, and it felt like the world kept moving on while time stopped for me. It was hard to find friends after a year hiatus from a classroom. But that didn’t stop me from trying to turn my life around.

Even more so, these four years at SHS have really emphasized that change and shown me who I truly am and what I’m capable of in life. If you told freshmen Gabe he would be a team captain on the baseball team, a co-president of the booster club, an award-winning sports reporter, a member of NHS and one of the S.T.A.R.S of the class of 2026, I would’ve thought you were talking about someone else.

But here we are, and now, as I take on my next adventure at the University of Indianapolis, I advise you to take advantage of the time you have here at SHS because once it’s gone, the memories you’ve made will last forever.

Now, as I leave the halls of SHS, I thank this place for being the building block I needed to take the next step on my journey. Thank you all, and for one last time, go Cards!!