Moving towards the unknown

Matthew Litman

I don’t feel like a senior. I’m not that tall, I still laugh whenever one of my teachers fails to work the projector, and yet, in just a couple of weeks I’ll be graduating.

Not to say that it all went by so quickly, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t think I’m ready. For the past thirteen years I’ve been surrounded by (mostly) the same people since kindergarten. I’ve been surrounded by the same streets and neighborhoods, the same Goldberg’s.  I know every nook and cranny of this school. I know all the teachers; I know the good lunches and the bad ones; and I know just how long I can hold off on turning in an assignment. And soon, in less than a year, I’ll be surrounded not by familiar faces and restaurants, but by complete unknowns.

I’m a bit scared. There are times when I don’t even look forward to going to college. I get nervous thinking about all the different variables involved. What am I going to major in? Am I going to join a frat? What if my roommate hates me? What if I don’t have any friends after the first week? What happens if I get lonely and don’t have anyone to talk to? Sometimes I think it’d just be easier to take a gap year that never ended.

Even though high school can be really stressful, and downright terrible at times, you have to remember where you are. It might not always seem like it, but people at this school really care about you. JDS is like the high school equivalent of the TV sitcom “Cheers.” Here, your teachers and friends want you to succeed. In the “real world,” it’s not like that. It’s competitive; people would rather see you get knocked down and stay down. Try and take advantage of the type of environment and the type of people you have at this school. I used to take JDS for granted, but now that I’m so close to leaving it, I realize how many opportunities I missed out on by simply ignoring them.

I don’t think we truly realize how good we have it until we don’t.