From the pressure of exams to all the life-long memories made, high school is one big emotional ride for most students. From making new friends to the endless amount of homework and not to mention everything changing around them as they become an adult, high school helps with the scariest part of getting older and entering the real world. But as a senior, leaving the comfort of this once foreign place is the next step in one’s life journey and looking back, it will be missed.

Some seniors say that entering and leaving high school is bittersweet, as both are huge jumps in a young person’s life. Entering high school is usually terrifying for students because it’s the biggest part of their teenage life and graduating high school can be upsetting because students are leaving so many wonderful people behind and moving out into the world.

“Senior year has been an emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs for me,” senior Brent Hebert said. “When it began it was joyful to be entering my final year of high school. Yet it soon became clear to me that I was growing up and would soon have to enter an alien world I knew nothing about. For a while this fear held me back, but eventually I was liberated by the full realization that this was simply a new adventure in life that I would have to take head on.”

According to Hebert, entering high school was a bit intimidating at first because of the difference in size.

“Coming from a small school, I first saw high school as a massive ocean that I wold soon be swept away in,” he said. “Now I see it’s just four more years of college prep.”

However, seniors are not just leaving something behind when they graduate; they are taking something with them. Being a student for four years allows teenagers to build relationships and gain advice from teachers and the adults involved in the high school. Those things not taught from a textbook are just as important, if not more so.

According to senior Jacob Wiggins, he has learned many life lessons from several of his high school teachers. He has learned that passion in the things one loves is key and persistence is always necessary. He said his teachers have also shown him that no matter what one does, he or she will struggle, but as long as they try – they will succeed.

“Knowledge wise, the stuff that I learned from books, I doubt very much of it will help,” Wiggins said. “What will help is remembering what values I was taught. I learned that too much of my generation has lost respect where it is due. And it is due to everyone. You don’t have to get respect to give respect until they lose it. And that goes for every person you will ever meet in your life.”