It feels like just yesterday I was a scared freshman walking through the big glass doors of Niles West. Totally stereotypical, I got lost going to almost all of my classes and was constantly forgetting my locker combination, and where it was. A few weeks in, I finally found my perfect walking route from class to class.

Everyone says that high school was the best years of their lives and don’t take them for granted, but no one could really explain how fast these four years have gone by. Freshman year I was worried about finding a group of friends, sophomore year I was worried about getting good grades, junior year I was freaking out about the ACT, and now, as a senior, I worried all year about picking the right college.

Like every other student, I don’t really enjoy waking up at 6 every morning and spending around 7 hours at school, sometimes those seven hours turn into even more depending on extracurriculars. But, it’s those extracurriculars that keep things interesting and fun, and give you something to look forward to. I was involved in a number of school clubs like Dance Marathon, I played soccer for my first two years, and I was a part of the orchestra for three years. Activities such as these taught me not only leadership skills, but life skills that will benefit me.

Niles West has really brought some amazing opportunities to my plate that I would have never imagined possible. I always knew I wanted to be a write, but I really realized it when I was put into Ms. Swanson’s English class sophomore year and then Ms. Lauer’s journalism class, which lead to me writing for the NWN. I’m lucky to say that through all the craziness of the college process, I will continue on at Drake University majoring in journalism. Graduating and moving forward is bittersweet, there’s no other words to explain it. So it’s not a goodbye forever, it’s a see you in a few years Niles West, these four years have been some of the best.