The Curtain is Closing and This Chapter is Ending--Karyna

We’ve all been performing for the past 12 years. We’ve been apart of the performance that is school. For 12 years we’ve been around the same cast members. We’ve seen most of these faces every single day. For 12 years we’ve been writing our book. We’ve been adding paragraph after paragraph of everything we’ve experienced these past 12 years that we’ve been in school.  And in 9 days, the curtain is closing. This chapter of our lives is coming to an end.  And, in some ways, that’s terrifying.

The future is uncertain. Nobody knows what is going to happen. We can hope and make decisions that put us where we want to be, but we don’t know how things are going to play out. That’s the scary thing about life. The uncertainty of it all. For a long time, I would make decisions that kept me from getting hurt in the end. I figured that if I could make decisions that would stop me from getting hurt, then I would be happy. As senior year was coming to an end, I started to distance myself from friendships and relationships that might not last. I don’t do well with people walking away, so if I did the walking away, then it would make everyone feel better. It was irrational thinking, and I know that now. There was one relationship in particular that I started to distance myself from. We had gotten back from spring break and I started to scare myself because I didn’t know where the relationship was going past high school. The more I thought about it, the more I talked myself into walking away. Once I started to do so, they pulled me aside and talked to me about it. They had reassured me about our relationship and how they weren’t going anywhere. That same person sent me a link to a Garth Brooks song titled “The Dance”.  Along with the link they said, “You are so worried about life and the future. I like this song because it reminds us that if we live a life of never getting hurt then we will never get a chance to live. I don’t want you to not live, love, and take chances because you’re afraid of getting hurt because that’s what makes life a journey”. What they said had really hit home. I listened to the lyrics of the song, which wasn’t easy because it’s country, and I almost started crying. What that person had said to me really changed my perspective on things and on life in general. I still find myself getting scared of being hurt, but then I tell myself that it’s apart of life.

I feel like this is an important lesson for all of us to learn, especially with graduation around the corner. We have to enjoy life and everything it entails. The hurt, the love, and the happiness are all what make our life a journey. We have to enjoy every minute of these next 9 days. We are scared of what’s to come because every decision we make is now our own. It’s going to be scary at times, but we have to remind ourselves that the wave will pass and eventually things get better. We have to remind our selves that it’s all part of life. So enjoy the end of senior year and make the best out of it. Stop focusing on the negative and look at the positive. What happens, happens. We have no control on the future so we might as well enjoy the present. Graduation is just the end of a chapter. We still have the rest of the book to write.