Three years ago, if you told me I’d be graduating and had a general idea of where I wanted to end up in mind, I’d probably laugh it off. Yet here I stand, with only the U.S. History Regents blocking my way to graduation.

While high school has been an experience, one which has given me many stories to tell and enjoy, I don’t think any experience I had in the school will ever match up to the excitement I felt at the Quill Awards. It’s probably a combination of many of my mistakes, but I had never gone on a field trip while at high school before.

So going to an award show and having us win not once, not twice, not even thrice, but five times was such an exciting moment even if I only contributed to one of them. Genuinely from the bottom of my heart, working for the Pow Wow student newspaper has inspired me to see if my place in the world is that of a journalist.

In fact, I’d say after all that’s happened, my biggest school-related regret is not joining the Pow Wow sooner. Then again, if taking journalism earlier would have hurt my experience this year, then maybe it was for the best that I learned about it so late.

However, I must give major thanks to my teachers because if it was not for them, I may not have ever decided to give journalism a shot. In my sophomore year, I wasn’t a troublemaker or anything, but I certainly wasn’t going out of my way to do anything special. In fact, I put in such little effort that I failed English 10 (with a little help from my biological father and the covid he brought home).

This isn’t to say I’m opposed to friends, far from it. During my time at school, but mainly in these buildings, I’ve met people I hope to stay in contact with after school ends. Shoutout to Mahdi, Sebastian, Obinna, Jayden, Scarlet, and Brandon for making my senior year a great time.

I hope you guys and everyone else I’ve befriended enjoy your lives and end up doing what you enjoy (also, if you want to hang out after high school or just stay in contact, you know where to find me).

Some of my friends are juniors and sophomores and I’d like to use this time to wish them the best and share some interesting courses the school has which I they might be interested in. I personally took photography and I have to say this is a very special course that’s way more than it sounds. While it is a lot of photos, taking it also works as a great way to learn how to use adobe photoshop if that sounds interesting.

Criminal Justice is a good class that provides knowledge that could be used in the future such as laws and rights. There is intro to weight lifting and life guarding which can be done for gym credits if either sound exciting. While I never took either, both coding and animation look like fun credits.

If you’re lacking credits for any reason, the school provides night school 6-., If that time doesn’t work, you could also ask for virtual night school which lasts from 3-6. And of course, I’d recommend taking journalism.

I’d like to thank my teachers for all they have done to help me throughout the year. Special thanks to Ms. Wither and all the teachers I had in my sophomore year for putting up with my carefree attitude, my junior year teachers for helping me realize my epiphany, and my senior year teachers for just being great teachers. I wish all of you the best.

Special thanks to Ms. Deblasi for just being one of the nicest people I have met, Mr. Rotella for helping me make it through chemistry and just overall being cool, Ms. Cohen for being the best, the Sonderling librarians for all the help and advice they have given me, and a special shout out to Ms. Buonaspina.

I was always worrying about pestering her too much with too many questions and requests, but she has been so much fun to hang out with and been such a great help when it comes to writing articles. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

While I’ve done most everything for myself, I also have been putting in as much work as I can for my grandma. She raised me when my parents couldn’t and I can’t do enough to make it up to her, so I’ve worked hard to show her my appreciation for everything she’s done for me. She deserves the world but since I can’t give it to her, I want her to know I’d give her the world three times over.

As a proud member of the class of 2024 I hope everyone will go out there and give it their best. High school may not seem that special, but you guys have the power to make it special. Don’t leave with regrets because you didn’t do any clubs or sports. At least try them out and make sure your time at the high school ends up as great as it can be.

Even if you’re not interested in clubs or sports, go work hard in classes. I want to hear stories about kids in Brentwood going to amazing colleges and doing great things, so all I ask to both the next generation is to do your best. This train is about to reach the station.

Overall, I had a good run. I’m admittedly nervous about going to Suffolk but in that nervousness, I also feel a weird sense of excitement. Nothing stops the future from coming so instead of feeling scared of it, I’m going to stand up, look it in the eye and see what it has in store for me.