I’m sitting here writing this on a random Thursday, just a couple of weeks before school is over. Just a couple of weeks until I leave my friends behind and the school and community I’ve known for 12 years. It’s hard to reflect on some of the best four years of my life, but if there’s one thing I took away from high school, it’s that everything will work out in the end. 

I remember my first day here at Algonquin just like yesterday. I felt like just another person in a crowd of a thousand. It was hard to make friends at first, and everything felt larger than life. I vividly remember not knowing what to do after school or which clubs to join. 

Then, as the years went on, I began to discover my interests. Freshman year I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, or what I wanted to do with my life, and truthfully, that’s ok. You don’t need to. If you asked me what I wanted to do sophomore year, I would’ve still said I had no idea. There seems to be this expectation that by the end of your high school career, you need to know exactly what you want to do and where you want to be, but that’s simply not true.

I’ve felt like most of my high school career has been spent wondering where I’m going to college, what I’m going to major in, or just worrying about something that, in reality, isn’t the end of the world. If I could restart high school with the knowledge I have now, I would simply not worry about the little things as much, because, at the end of the day, everything will work out. 

Spend high school doing the things you love. There are so many great clubs at Algonquin to choose from, and I’ve always believed that you should do the ones that you truly find interesting. Not everything needs to be a grind to reach a leadership position, but sometimes, when you just do something for fun, you’ll find not just friends but also genuine experiences and memories to look back on. I regret not taking all the courses that I wanted to take until later in high school. You only have one high school experience, and filling it with classes and activities that you genuinely find interesting and that you have a passion for will make your experience all the better.  

Don’t waste your one experience at Algonquin; I remind myself now not to waste my one experience in college. Don’t stress yourself out too much, and do the things that genuinely interest you, because in the end, it’ll all work out.