Feature story draft

My dad’s side of the family is so much fun. I have always looked up to my older cousins. I thought they were so cool and I would want to fit in with them and be just like them. My brother Cole and I are the youngest in the family, and I’ve always kind of hated it. Now here I sit, my senior year in high school, and it’s kind of hard to believe. Everything I have been so used to is all about to change and there really isn’t anything I can do about it. Not only are my cousins deep into college, some are off on their own now, with careers and families. That is so weird to me. It used to be so easy to find something fun to do when we visited them in Ohio. We were all just kids and found joy in the little things. I remember we would make a huge fort in my cousins’ basement. We were assigned certain jobs and got all our weapons together- rubber band guns, slingshots, nerf guns- you name it. Then we would prepare for battle. My uncles and my dad would all be waiting to ambush us from the door leading from the garage above into the basement. The funny thing is that I don’t really remember any battles specifically, just the crazy things we would do to prepare for one of these battles. It was a yearly event… until we grew up.

No matter how badly I want to revisit these times in my life, I know that I never will be able to. They’re adults now and have their boyfriends and girlfriends over for holidays. This really got me thinking that yeah, it’s going to be great to be off on my own and be independent, but on the other hand, all the childhood innocence is gone. I’ll really see the world’s true colors and will have to make decisions everyday that will affect me. I look at my kids in church that I mentor and with many of them, I don’t see fun-loving middle school students. I see fashion-diva, boy-crazy, makeup-wearing, drama-queen tweens. My co-mentor tells them, “don’t try to be grown up too fast, because once you’re an adult, you’ll never get these years back. Ever”. They laugh and respond, “We’re not little anymore; we’re in the sixth grade and we have boyfriends”. Boyfriends in sixth grade? Really?

I’ve enjoyed my past four years of high school, but I’m very excited to get out of here, as many others are. However, the other day, I was “facebook chatting” with my cousin Cory, who is a freshman up at University of North Dakota, and he gave me some advice. He told me “you may be rushing to graduate and start college; I remember I was. But don’t forget to make the most of your senior year, because it’s the most fun out of all your high school years”. I thought about this and agreed. “Don’t stop getting involved and just have as much fun as you can, because once it’s all done, you’ll never be able to go back”. That may seem like a good thing right now, as we are still waking up at 6 a.m. every morning and coming to school for seven hours, but he is right. Some of your best memories come from high school.

It’s almost spring now, and I have decided that instead of worrying about busy-work homework that won’t even matter in the end, I’m going to focus on my friends. I’m really going to try to strengthen my relationships with the people who have made such a difference in my life these past four years. I am the only one of any of my friends who is going to school in North Dakota. So once I leave, I’m going to have to start all over. I mean, I’ll still stay in contact with my high school friends, but nothing will ever be the same as it was when we saw each other every day. That seems strange to hear that said out loud. That’s why it’s so important to spend these last couple of months doing things you love so that you will have a memorable high school experience.

I was having a heart-to-heart conversation with my friend Michelle, who is a high school sophomore. We have been very close since we were very little, so it hurt to hear her say “I don’t know what I’m going to do next year without you. You’re like my big sister and always give me advice when I need to most”, this made me very sad, “plus who’s going to keep an eye on Cole? I’m going to have to take control of that!” We laughed. I decided that friends like that aren’t just going to disappear, which gave me a positive look on moving out. I think the point I’m trying to make is to hold onto your childhood as long as you can. It’s like sand, you can hold onto it for a short while, but sooner or later, it’s going to slip away from you.