Last Day in High School Surprise

Can you still remember your last day in high school – the emotions, the events, whatever happened that day? You must have felt really sad because of the thought that you weren't going to see your buddies anymore, after being with them for four years or even more. But what about those people who do not have a permanent home, those who move constantly, those who transferred from one high school to the other on their senior year? What did they feel on their last day in high school?

I have met people like them in my school, where people constantly move from one state to the other in search of stability and contentedness in life. Allow yourself to imagine that you are me just for this time. Imagine yourself going to school. You sit on a nearby bench and you are just observing people around the vast quad. While waiting for the bell to ring, you observe and see people who look lost, some of them walking with straight faces looking composed, others are just sitting on a bench just like you.

Not my photograph.

You do this every morning waiting for the first period bell. You see the same people standing by the door waiting for the bell to ring, the same Asian girl sitting on the bench reading a book, the same Latino who is texting, the same tall white guy who looks lost but is apparently trying to look as composed as he can. You are not wondering why you see them almost always like this every morning hanging out on their usual spots, as you have the same situation like theirs – new in a big school, on their senior year. They hang out in each of their usual spots because they have become comfortable with it. You have, too, from your very first day to sit on that bench, observing people with their friends, laughing and talking about their day as if there's no tomorrow. Of course, you felt envious. You wish you had been with your friends back in your old school, laughing with them, talking about your day. But that could never happen now, because you are in reality. As the months pass, you got to know the people you observed. Just as I thought, we all have the same sentiment – what's the worth of making friends with everybody? It is the last year in high school. As much as you wanted to make friends with the other seniors or the people around, you have no time to catch up with their 13 years of friendship experiences together as a group, or as a clique, or as a decathlon team, or even as a gang. It is as if they are in a car fit for just say five people, and as much as they are calling you to hop inside with them to join the fun ride, you feel you don't want to go because squeezing in a 6th person or sitting on someone else's lap is going to be uncomfortable. And it
could spoil the otherwise fun ride because everyone is making adjustments for you to be comfortable with them inside. So why bother, right?

Not my photograph

Taking you out from me now, my case is a little bit different from those new seniors I met. They are from America, born and raised here, while I was not. I emigrated together with my family here two years ago, and the adjustment processes were painful. I have already attended two high schools in two years of my stay here. How uncomfortable. So I was not just adjusting to the school, I was still adjusting to the culture in the U.S. as well. I did not join any clubs because for some reason I had become apathetic. However, as the final day approached, something surprised me, and it was one big surprise I could never forget in my entire life.

It was the final week. Every senior was preparing for their finals, while others just do not care and can't wait to get out of high school. I felt like those people, too. I wanted to start anew in college.

But when the very last day was coming, I felt inexplicably sad to the point that I wrote parting letters to some people.

She told me she almost tear up when she finished reading it.

I had the hug of my life from this girl.

I had the hug of my life from this girl.

Then we took our picture, May 21,2010

Then we took our picture, May 21,2010

They were not farewell letters a friend would tell a friend if they have been in school together for 13 years, but a letter telling them my thanks for making the effort of befriending a new guy in school – me. And that effort was fantastical. It's because even though the car was made to fit only five people, another space was magically created for me to sit comfortably with them and join the fun ride. Magic happens inexplicably; I felt comfortable with their presence for some reason I could not explain.

I also felt sad because even though I had not talked much to my teachers, just the thought of parting with the last set of high school teachers who increased my knowledge and contributed to my being a whole lot made me sentimental, to the point that I asked for their pictures with me.

Monsieur Arigan, once a college professor at University of Southern California, not just teaches his students French, but to acquire it.

I will be forever thankful to this highly respectable man. Merci monsieur pour l'année scolaire memorable.

Caption: She made me love math, a thing I thought I would never learn to do until I met her

This surprised me. On my very first day in Rancho High, I thought that I wasn't going to miss high school.

Now, wow, I am going to miss it. Even though I have been sad for most of my last school year, didn't join any clubs, didn't have that much friends and only acquaintances, they have become part of my life that I will forever cherish and experiences I would be able to look back on while sitting on my rocking chair at the porch after 70 years and telling them to my future grandchildren (I hope I live that long!). After a bumpy ride on the Last Year Train, I came out refreshed, full of hope, and because of the experiences I have gone through, I have never become readier than I am now to face other challenges ahead, even if it is transferring from one college to the other.

… The good you will do will be forgotten tomorrow,

Do Good Anyway….

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,

Be Honest And Frank Anyway…

…Give the world the best you have

And you'll get kicked in the teeth,

Give The World The Best You've Got Anyway…

… What you spent years may be destroyed overnight,

Build Anyway…

Excerpts from an ode called

Anyway. it can be found on the wall of a children's home

in Calcutta, India where Mother Teresa served.