John Doe

It's strange how it is only after we realize that something is being lost that we truly understand and appreciate how meaningful it really was. The school system is conveniently set up so that it is easy to know where you are presently, and where you are headed for the next few years. After first grade you go on to second grade, and then third, and so on, until finally you reach twelfth grade. Being that school is all we know, it is something to which we become very quickly accustomed and it becomes difficult to picture what our lives would be like without it. It is so easy to forget that school is but a prelude and that so much more lies ahead. By the time we reach high school, the finale of our time growing up, spending more time in school probably is not so appealing. School work is hard. We are there all day, yet even after arriving home, we have loads more work to do and tests to study for. Some of the topics may not always be interesting to us. I know, being someone who was not so happy with the school system, how frustrating it can be. It's understandable why someone would want to conclude this trek to graduation as fast as possible, jumping the rungs from freshman to senior if only to overcome the burden of high school. They fail, however, to realize the opportunities they are missing over the course of a journey that cannot be repeated. The fact that there is no thirteenth grade awakens a senior to this reality. The future is suddenly uncertain because next year we will not be in high school anymore. We are forced to think seriously about our future with only our school experience to look back on. Suddenly, it becomes evident how many of the things we may have taken for granted in school will no longer be with us in future years.