I am leaving, but it’s not farewell

This is it. We have made it to that ultimate stride on the stage, as we prepare for perhaps the most ineffable fusion of emotions. This is the culmination of our childhood and the beginning of a new journey, in which the hallways were once our world and the world is now our hallway.

Though I will try, I know it is simply impossible to express my immense gratitude and appreciation for all that the Hewlett-Woodmere community has offered me: 18 years of participating in the neighborhood and in return, absorbing the most invaluable life lessons of learning, failing, striving, and growing.

Fortunately, I realized long ago that our time at school is finite. With such an epiphany, I decided to become involved in the community with fervor and heart as my guide. Along the way, I drowned in a myriad of moments, moments in which I found my voice, passion, and curiosity. With this, I recognized that there is an inevitable 18-year cycle in this world; it begins with innocence and zeal, leads to aspirations, failures, and ultimately triumph, and concludes with melancholy farewells and everlasting pride. As seniors, we each completed our own individual cycle, however, we completed it together. Therefore, it is not just four years of high school we are graduating from, but rather, 18 years of true learning.

Personally, I vividly remember releasing butterflies we watched grow for weeks in pre-kindergarten, successfully reciting the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time, creating artificial ice cream in fifth-grade science class, advancing to the state level of the National History Fair competition in eighth grade, receiving a 65 on my first AP Euro exam, and eventually becoming a columnist for the Nassau Herald. These are the moments. These are the memories that I am graduating from yet they remain ingrained within my heart, now a part of who I am today.