Graduation

 Today felt so surreal. I couldn't believe that on June 4th, 2021, I would graduate from high school. It is funny to recall old memories like in first grade where I thought that there was no point in thinking about graduation because it was so far away. 4 years ago, I imagined myself walking down the football field at a local public school because I didn't even know I would attend a small private school at that time. 

The whole morning was quite lame. I spent an hour "decorating" my graduation cap. I put quotation marks because I was simply observing my mom decorating the cap. Although it would have been better if I decorated it myself, my mom knows that I tend to rush things and screw up the whole process. The design was quite simple compared to my peers. I used two laptop stickers sent from MIT CP* (cartoon beavers) and used strips to make the MIT logo. Then I printed the dome logo and stuck it at the bottom. For the borders, I just used silver adhesive paper instead of washi tape. 

After the decoration, I had to finish my AP CSA project. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be initially, but it still took quite a long time. Once I completed my project, I spent an awfully long time writing thank you cards to my teachers. 

Instead of taking an hour to prepare for graduation like my classmates, I first had AP Physics C tutoring and then took 30 minutes to dress up and take pictures before meeting my friends at the one-room schoolhouse. 

The surrounding was so quiet and peaceful, which made me love the location for taking the graduation portraits with my friends because everyone just goes to the bridge in the local suburban community for prom and graduation. I would say the one-room schoolhouse is probably a secret treasure that few know about in the area because it is nestled in the countryside that borders the town. 

After spending an hour taking pictures, I got into my friend's car and went to school for the graduation ceremony. My friend played music in the car and it was nice to have those typical teenage moments when you have the car windows down and music is just blasting in your ears. I will truly cherish those moments because they made me feel young and free. 

At graduation, I was pretty nervous to give my speech. I barely memorized it and just read off my paper at the podium. Of course, I made sure to look at the audience but I would do that occasionally. At the same time, however, I am glad I had the opportunity to give a speech to a crowd of 200 people. In retrospect, my speech was pretty cliche as the main message was to not waste time and live each day to its fullest. But what would I have said instead of productivity and time? 

When the headmaster gave my classmates the diplomas, it felt good to cheer them on, even though I didn't know them that well or barely talked to them. The most memorable moment was when one family used the confetti popper, causing confetti to fly in the sky because the outside was so windy. That is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing things I saw in the past year. The other funny moments were when my classmate purposefully turned his tassel in front of everyone when he was supposed to do that after the event officially ended. If I could only hold on to one moment from graduation, it would be the short yet intense exhilaration I felt when I threw my graduation cap in the air. I mean, it was my first time ever doing that in my life. 

As I sat in the car on the way back home, I thought about the regrets I had in high school that were not academic regrets, but rather social regrets. I regretted that I didn't really try to get to know my other classmates better. I feel like most of my classmates are nice and interesting people, yet I didn't talk to a lot of them during high school. I suppose that the one piece of advice I will give to my fellow high schoolers is that you should avoid only hanging out with a certain group because it may cause you to not know other people that well. I would say that my feelings of regret are only the beginning. It will hit me even harder when the last dance at prom plays (my school prom is two weeks after graduation). 

I don't want to end this blog post on a sad note because it is graduation. Overall, I am relieved that high school is over and I can't believe that my 12 years of primary and secondary education has been fully completed.