I know; every time I write a new post it begins with an apology about how long it has been since I last wrote. Well, this post is no different. Sorry it's been so long again everyone! Life has been flying by at alarming speeds, and in an instant it has been a month since my last post. Despicable, really.
I may not come back again for a while, so let's make this one worth it, shall we?
Just like that, it's the night before graduation from high school. That absolutely baffles me. As I sit and write this I'm really being hit by everything. I vividly remember standing outside the front entrance to the school, hesitating to take those monumental steps inside because 12-year-old me was so nervous to start the next chapter of his life. Look at that, now 17-year-old me is just as scared to start the next chapter of his life...
Taking those steps into the school was the best thing I ever did. The last five years have been filled with teenage clichés (tough tests, parties, etc.), incredible people, and the best experiences of my life thus far. I say we just dive right in to it.
Grade 8 was one of the quickest feeling years of the lot. The anxiety that surrounded the new school experience swiftly evaporated as I settled in and became accustomed to the workload and overall difficulty of schoolwork. I realized that it wasn't quite as bad as I had expected. I met a lot of new people, made new friends, and found out that I was actually quite a social person. In fact, not to brag or anything (but maybe a little..), I was quite the social butterfly. I began to do teenager-like things like going to the mall and hanging out in my friends' basements after school. In a year, my level of independence skyrocketed. It may sound very sad but I never really had any friends through elementary school (I'm 'not' looking for your 'sympathy', I promise), so this was a fantastic first year of high school. My best memory was having three of my best friends over for a sleepover on my birthday. We played a video game called GarageBand and had a fantastic night as our very own band. To say we brought the house down with our performance is a criminal understatement.
After what felt like no time at all, grade 8 had concluded and grade 9 was upon us. My friend group fluctuated a lot through the year as I met more fun people in different classes. I want to say here that, even though I may have moved away from a lot of people during high school, I'm not on bad terms with any single person that I met. And for that, I am proud. So, as I said, my friend group changed in grade 9, but I still did all of the same teenage things as I had the previous year + a lot more video games. My independence kept rising as I hung out with friends more often, and I had another fantastic year. At this point, I knew how hard I had to work in my classes in order to achieve high grades, so the school aspect was quite chill. My favourite memory from this year is going to camp with some of my fellow classmates. I have been in an accelerated math and science program called the mini school for the past five years, and each year before 2020 we would go to camp. Grade 9 was hands down the best of the bunch. Everyone had a really great time connecting with one another, and I have only good memories from the entire experience. Honestly this camp is probably my only memory from all of grade 9, which I realize now was very unmemorable.
After another swift year, grade 10 started. Overall, this was my absolute favourite year of high school. I started taking theatre class and had the opportunity to act in my first play, channeling my inner Leonardo DiCaprio. This process was incredible, and I met so many amazing people who I am lucky to call my friends. Along with theatre, I was lucky enough to find my current friend group during this year. We all started hanging out more and more often, and I had the best social year of my life, surrounded by the best of people. This was even the year that Elio and I became best friends, so I'm very grateful for that. Sorry to anyone who doesn't have any friends. I recommend going to get some, they're cool. Anyways, my favourite memory from this year has to be a tie. First, a friend of mine had a great party to start the summer, and I remember feeling so lucky to be there with so many incredible people. It is a night that I will not soon forget, but it is a tie for my best memory because earlier in the year I had the opportunity to play a soccer match at BC Place in front of 3,000 people. My father was invited to play in a 'Legend and Stars' charity match, and asked if I could come along for the ride. Playing on that pitch with a bunch of actors and retired players was one of the best moments of my life, and I was lucky enough to run it back the next year as well...
I'd like to also mention that this is the year that the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship. I know this interrupts the story, but as I was editing I realized that I forgot to include that very important moment! It is probably the most excited I've been in my entire life, so I had to mention it. Now back to it.
Yes! Grade 11 began with my second charity match at BC Place, which may even be more memorable than the first. I was able to get a couple of tickets for my friends to come and watch me play this time, and it made the whole experience that much cooler. I even managed to score a couple of goals this time. That day may just be the happiest I've ever been. After such a fantastic start, the rest of the year somehow managed to live up to the ridiculously high standard set. For my birthday that year, I threw a big party at my house. Now, my house is very small, but I somehow managed to fit almost 40 people into it that night. It was like hanging out with all the cool people in my life all at once, mixing all of my friend groups into one, and it was so much fun. I think I may have just mansplained what a party is, but that's ok. It was one of the best nights of my life so far, and I wished that more nights like that one could have happened before the whole, y'know. Grade 11 was on track to be my favourite year ever. And then the unthinkable happened. Everything shut down, social skills were lost, and school was changed drastically. But, we don't need to dwell on the bad things that happened, because we still found a way to make this past year memorable.
That we did. I had made it to Grade 12. It's still crazy to me that I am among the most senior students at the school. Actually, being a December baby, that isn't really true. This was a graduating year like no other. We couldn't do any of the fun grad events, there was a whole new quarter system at school, and I hardly saw the bottom half of anyone's faces, to name a few. And yet, with all these setbacks, the year was still very enjoyable. That has to be the greatest takeaway from the entire pandemic: you appreciate the little things so much more. And it was the little things that made this year a really good one. Sure, it's too bad that we can't have a prom, but I'm just so happy that I get to see my friends more often now. I'm so happy because tomorrow as I cross the stage my friends will be there to watch and cheer me on. Despite everything, I'm so happy.
As I sit here and write this post, the monument of graduating is really hitting me. There were tough, stressful, anxiety-filled moments, sure, but my high school experience was everything that I could have wanted and more. Looking back now, it feels like those past five years went by so quickly, but there were definitely stressful nights of studying that made it feel like the longest five years of my life. Here's a fun fact to bring us home: the time doesn't actually move quicker in high school. When you're graduating you just wish that maybe it could have moved a little slower.
Tomorrow I graduate high school, and to my family, friends, family friends, teachers, and everyone else who supported me through the past five years, thank you.
Here's hoping I don't trip walking across the stage! That would be terrible! Hope it doesn't happen! Hopefully...!
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