I don’t set out cookies for Santa anymore. There is no need for me to leave my tooth under my pillow so that the tooth fairy can come.  No more trick-or-treating or easter bunny, or even the leprechaun destroying my classroom. My imagination has well disappeared, growing up is a scary thing that happens too fast. I don’t realize how much I have grown until it’s my first day of senior year and I leave for college next summer. Where has all the time gone? Looking back to when I was starting kindergarten, I had life so easy. No need to worry about homework, sports, or college. I could play or take naps whenever I wanted, I miss the days when my dad carried me to my room when I feel asleep from a long car ride home. Why didn’t I listen when people told me to stop growing up?

             Now that I’m a senior, I’ve been through a lot and have learned a lot of life lessons. For example, listen to your parents when they give you a curfew or ask you to do chores around the house, the chores may have seemed like a lot of work then but now I wish that’s all I had to do. I must make big life decisions that could make or break my future like what college to go to, where to live, and what job I will pursue for life. The future has held so much for me and now it’s all coming true little by little. I’m scared, if I am being honest, I don’t know a lot about house mortgages or taxes.  I don’t know if I can live by myself away from my family who I have always been close with. One part of me is excited while the other half is scared, I will be living a completely different life with new surroundings and new people. If I could time travel back to when I was a freshman, I would redo it all over again. I would go to more football games, volleyball games, and get involved in so many more activities. To younger students who are in their freshman or sophomore year of high school, some advice that I would give to them is not to procrastinate, do your homework, and make sure you communicate with your teachers if you don’t understand a subject. Lastly, enjoy your high school experience because it goes by in the blink of an eye.