Everyone, no matter who they are, gets nervous for their first day of high school. I vividly remember being in the Portland Pie Company in Biddeford the night before my first day of high school with my parents, talking about what I was expecting the next day to be like. My outfit had been picked out for weeks, my backpack had been sitting by the door, and my nerves were progressively getting higher and higher.

I remember my first year of freshman year. I had thought about it for weeks and weeks on end, asked everyone I knew about where my classes were and who my teachers were, and was about as prepared as anyone could possibly be. I was ready to make the most of my first year of high school.

I remember my first day of sophomore year, and it feels like the first day of freshman year Margo was a completely different person. Going into school with a mask felt like a dystopian reality. My first class of the day was health, which in a way felt like a sick joke. I ate lunch in Gym B, 6 feet away from everyone else.

I remember my first day of junior year, which was also close to my first day of my EMT class at Biddeford Center of Technology. At this point, I feel like I might have a good grip on this whole high school thing. School was no longer online, I was a couple of weeks away from getting my drivers license, and I was given the opportunity to get all of my EMT training for free.

Finally, I remember my first day of senior year. At this point, the first day of a new school year seemed much less stressful than before. I already had both my EMS and driving license, and I was ready to make the most of my last year of high school.

Looking back at all four years of high school, each and every one of the years had its ups and downs, with a few very distinct downs, like the seeming farce that was trying to do high school online. But with all of the downs, and there were many, there were a multitude of small joys that seem to outshine everything else in hindsight. 

Life deals you cards, and you have to play the hand you’re dealt. In the moment of all the difficult parts of school and the bad hands I was being dealt, it felt like every day, class, or assignment was the end of the world. Retrospectively, I wish I would have had a better perspective on high school. From barely passing every math class I ever took, to college applications, to the dreaded finals week, it seems like all of the things I experienced made me a better person.

As high school slips into the rearview mirror, I think about all of the first days that I have had at KHS, and how it has often felt like on each of those days it seems like a different person experienced them. But now I can see that the experiences that I had in high school, good or bad, formed me as a person. As I move onto college in Buffalo, New York, I can only look back at being in high school fondly. Was it traditional? No. But did I come out of high school a more complex, thoughtful, and resilient person? Yes. 

It wasn’t always perfect, many times far from it, but the myriad experiences, ups and downs, joys and disappointments seem to condense into fondness. Everyone says this at some point or another, but the short four years of high school will be over before you know it, so take advantage of every single opportunity presented to you. Do everything you can to make sure that when you walk across the stage and get your diploma, you can say you not only tried your hardest, but made lasting memories along the way.