It seemed like it was just yesterday that I was walking through the big red front doors of MTHS as an immature freshman. Now, a crazy fast three years later, I am knocking on the doorstep of adulthood and about to reach the next stage of life in college. It still leaves me in shock how quickly it’s all flown by and the idea of moving onto the next stage of life is still surreal.

The high school experience for me has been something like a Lokai bracelet. You know, one of those bracelets that at one point, I swear everyone had. The ones that supposedly had water from the snow of Mount Everest, the highest point of the world, and the sand from the dead sea, the lowest point of the world.

There are moments throughout this four year journey where you will feel like you’re on top of Mount Everest and that you’re on top of the world. Likewise, to balance the high moments, you will experience lows that you will feel are lower than the sand of the dead sea.

The lessons that I’ve learned from those highs and those lows are that if you’re going to be stuck for four years going to high school, why not walk through those hallways with a positive outlook, looking through the lens of optimism and just learn to enjoy the process. Look at high school not as a glass half empty but through the outlook of the glass being half full.

There is always a light at the end of whatever tunnel you may have found yourself to be stuck in. Everything in this world is temporary. That’s why we have to make the most out of it while it’s still here.

As simple as it sounds, these are the only four years that you’ll ever be in high school. These are also the only years where you’re growing into the prime years of your life. Why not learn to make the most of every experience during these four short years?

High school might not be paradise: having to wake up really early, or the daily stress factor, but with every negative, there is a positive to balance it out.

Enjoy the football games under the Friday night lights where you get to stand up and scream your heart out along with your peers and not have adults give you a weird eye. Same goes for basketball and all of the other sports at MTHS.

Enjoy the assemblies where you get to love and celebrate the community that you’re in.

Enjoy it all while it’s still here because some day when you’re 40 years old, you may look back at these years and you just may feel a tingle of regret.