The moment that I have been dreading since sophomore year has come. I used to be afraid of graduating and moving to the next part of life. But as the school year was ending, I reached the 5th stage: acceptance.

I was so used to the same cycle of starting a new school year, ending the school year, summer vacation, and so on. But now there won’t be another school year for me.

I like to think that I’m going to be on vacation for the rest of my life. Having this kind of optimistic perspective is helpful because it helps you keep faith moving forward into the future.

Optimism is a great thing. I saw this one poster in a teacher’s classroom that said, “the man who says he can and the man who says he can’t are both right.” I love inspirational quotes like these because they are honest and optimistic. People should get the truth and still feel like they have a purpose.

I have some quotes of my own, such as “a teachers’ words are gold.” I believe that teachers give out valuable information, whether it’s school-related or not. Many of them have given me advice that will save me from lots of difficulty in the future.

“It won’t ruin anyone’s day if you…” I think about this quote a lot in many situations. If I do something out of the ordinary, for example, volunteer to present in front of the class.

Nobody suffered in any way shape or form. This quote can also be used to cope with a slightly embarrassing situation. Chances are people won’t remember it the next day.

“Life will always be full of problems, instead of ignoring them, welcome it.” I wrote this in a little notebook when I felt like I was dealing with so much all at once. It’s okay to have problems. Having problems makes solving them worth it.

One of my teachers said, “when you judge others, you are basically looking in the mirror and criticizing yourself.” Any time you think badly about someone, you point out your own underlying insecurity. Replace these thoughts with positive thoughts.

My math teacher once said, “learn as much as you can.” Knowledge is more valuable than money. I encourage everyone to seek an opportunity to learn something new.

There is only so much advice I could give to the next class and beyond. The purpose of all this was so that I could spread this message to influence people in a positive way.