Last night was it, I finally graduated. 13 grueling years into the making, down to one impossibly small cap and white gown, who for reasons beyond me managed to not to get a single stain on it. It was quite fun once I got into the groove of it and laughed along with others. I said goodbyes to old teachers and friends, admittedly some with a bigger internal smile than is probably right, but I strut across that stage like I owned it, gave a princess wave to the crowd and finished things up with a mighty toss of the darned cap that moved at my every facial expression. Once outside I felt like a race horse with how many flowers that set in my arms, I felt accomplished, I felt proud, I felt like I could take on the world. And yet here today I sit before you, facing the same old computer screen, because all in all I'm still the same. Sure I have to get a job soon and sure college may be in my future, but all in all I don't feel like a high school graduate. I haven't changed much despite my many resolutions to do so. I'm still shy and polite and 'too kind' as my friends often tell me; one diploma doesn't change who I am I realized, but it did give me room to grow and explore the many doors that just opened. I know for certain I won't look back on high school or middle school or elementary school and think of them as the best years of my life, frankly I didn't do much more than the basics of survival. I didn't put myself out there in clubs or sports, I had a pitiful social life, my grades barely got me to this point. Then how can I still consider myself accomplished? Because I beat the system, I followed the path while staying on edge, and to be honest this is the first big thing I have seen through to the end. None of my books, none of the big projects have seen their finales and yet here I stand completing my public schooling. I don't know if anyone will read this, but I am a writer to the core and I have to use words to express everything I can't say out loud.
