By Matthew Bitz
Recently, we got our annuals from the 1998-99 school year. As I opened it up for the first time and started reading, I recalled all the things that happened last year, all the laughs I had and all the fun my friends and I had. I realized that high school isnt so bad after all. Yes, thats right, I said, High school isnt so bad after all.
Perhaps I owe you some explanation for this odd statement, so I shall do my best in the space provided here.
I can still remember by first day in kindergarten, all I wanted was to grow up and be one of the big kids, to stand at the head of the line or to lead the class in from recess. All too soon I was there, sixth grade was gone and it was on to junior high. Now, as I begin my sophomore year, I watch the seventh graders scurrying from class to class. Always rushing, not caring where they re going as long as they get there in a hurry.
Like all 16-year-olds, Ive always been fascinated with fast cars. However, where do we have to at 180 mph? But yet, who drives faster than a teenager on the way to school, where are we going? First period, to get a head start on noting the reproductive cycle of fungi? I think not. No, we are simply rushing towards graduation, our ticket to freedom and the real world, thats what it is. Because in the real world wed be on our own, be responsible adults, make our own decisions, and be done with school.
Yeah, right. The day we get our diplomas the learning begins in earnest and theres just passing or failing. We learn to make it on our own or not. That simple.
I dont want to make the rest of your life into something to fear, but what Im saying here is that there wont always be ball games, and there wont always be pep band, and there wont always be road trips for tournaments. No more cruising after school gets out, no more movie parties until 4 a.m.
All I know is that much too soon well be going to class reunions and remembering all the fun we had back in school. Well sit there around the tables and laugh and talk about it, and then as we lapse into silence, play with glasses and pushing that last bite of cake around the paper plates with the forks, we will realize that we miss it. And then someone finally says, It sure did go fast. And one by one, all the heads nod, and everyone agrees that it wasnt so bad after all.
