t’s finally May 2025. The more I witness the days of the year pass by, the more I’m grateful for the opportunity to attend high school. The end of my high school years is a milestone I never expected to arrive at so fast, but it’s here and there’s nothing I can do about it except reflect on the past experiences I had in this facility. I remember dreading each additional day that I had to wake up early to get here, telling myself each time to ‘just make it to Friday.’ But now that I’m finally at a point in my life where I can look back on my memories without shame, I realize that even though back then I might not have enjoyed showing up to school every day, it was still one of the most significant opportunities that I’ve been blessed to have. The connections, friendships, hardships, all of it helped me in ways I might not have noticed, whether I liked it or not. It may not have been the most pleasant time of my life, but I can still look back on the time I had and smile. All of my senior friends seem to have had the same thoughts on this, some of them were a little more excited than others to make it to this point, but all of them were still somewhat downcast about leaving what once seemed like their home away from home.
At the time I’m writing this, it’s currently May 14, which also happens to be my very last day of high school, and while I have already finished everything I had to for all my classes, there is still one assignment I haven’t completed, which happens to be this story. It’s symbolic that my final assignment before I graduate is to write about my time in this school and how I feel about it. Every decision I have ever had, every thought I spent a little too much time thinking about, and each single step I took led me to this point, and while these things may seem so insignificant, they still amounted to this huge milestone in my life.
I am so blessed to see all of the changes, big or small, that I have gone through during this small amount of time I spent here. I dealt with some past issues I had with myself, resolved conflicts with some of my peers, and even found new hobbies that I enjoy devoting my time to. People usually say that they would go back and do things a little differently if they had a time machine. Still, I believe that while I made some pretty bad mistakes in the past, it’s part of life and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it because the me that I am today is all due to those things, and I might not have been proud of the person I had become like I am currently.
I know they probably won’t ever read this silly little document, but I would still like to write down how much I appreciate the teachers I have had up until now, not just in Wheeler, but in all the years I spent showing up to elementary, middle, and high school. Each of them had a significant impact on my life. They shaped the person I am today; some were even there for me when little Adryan couldn’t speak English. I hope that in the future, if I ever cross paths with them, I’ll be able to show them how much I’ve grown and take pride in it.
