I’m not going to lie, trying to pull up the courage to write this column, it’s been a little bit of a struggle for me…

As this is probably the last column I will write, as I will be graduating, I wanted to end on a good note – I want to end with a little piazzas! …but, for starters, I didn’t know where to start.

I mean, what should I write about? I still had lots of ideas; yet, I only had one column. Yet, somehow, I had one idea stand out to me the most: What did high school teach me?

I guess, it doesn’t even have to be lessons that I learned, but even just a reflection. I thought it would be a challenging piece for me – sure, four years was a short amount of time, but I still experienced a lot things – yet, sad to admit, but the first things that come to mind from high school were all the bad memories….the memories of stressing over projects, staying up late to study, and of course, the occasional feuds with friends; I find myself reflecting over the times I spent with people that aren’t in my life anymore or looking back at mistakes I am still embarrassed about; yet, I don’t find myself regretting anything I did over the last four years. Any dumb decision that I made was a chance for me to become a better person and was an opportunity for myself to learn.

And of course, I had to try a little hard, but I had a few good memories in there too…times I spent with my friends as I giggled my way through haunted houses, hours that I spent eating at Steak N Shake, running the mile barefoot during practice – because I swear, shoes slow me down, bowling matches that quickly turned into promises to fight, or classmates teasing me as I out screamed everyone on roller coasters.

Sure, there were a lot of bad memories through high school, but there were just as many good memories too.

One might refer to high school as a four year walk through Hades and back. I would argue that, yeah, it’s a long walk, but I had fun and high school taught me to make the moments count because sure enough, eventually, I will reach the finish line before I know it.

Editor’s Note: Jane Elliston is a Senior at Fair Grove High School, she writes about her life and the challenges she faces.