A Year of Many Lasts by Riley

A Year of Many Lasts by Riley - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

It's pretty easy for me to look at the upcoming school year and start thinking about and planning how I will "lock in" on my assignments and make sure I have my grades in order before I head off to college.

What I've come to realize, though, is that as much as all that stuff matters, there is something that matters more to me: making the most of my senior year experiences. Senior year is a year of many lasts. It will be the last time I get to spend lunch with my friends, laughing about something stupid one of us said. It will be the last year I get to spend the rainy days in my favorite teacher's class, talking about how cold and wet it is outside, wishing for sunnier days. It will be the last year that I get to attend the school-run "Rock The Hill" concert event, performed by our very own students. On top of all that, it will be the last time I get to attend high school. There are no second chances after this year.

When I first entered high school, there was a pre-existing notion that it would be another four long years of a multitude of classes in an almost seemingly never-ending hierarchy of school. Then I blinked. Suddenly, I'm on my first day of senior year, and before you know it, I'll be walking onto the stage at graduation to accept my diploma and start a brand new chapter in my life.

It's kind of scary growing up this quickly. I always feel like I want the time to pass by so quickly and for this all to be over with, but when it does, I'm left empty-handed. Reflecting on all the times I skipped a school dance and said, "I'll go to it next year." After this, there won't be a "next year". Or maybe the times when my friend invited me to join a club they were in, and I politely declined, thinking it wouldn't matter in the long run. It'll matter in five years when I wish I had spent some more time with that friend. These are just a few of the moments I've missed, but they are also moments that I'll never get to experience again once I leave high school.

Those missed opportunities taught me something, though: I can't undo the decisions I've made in past years, but I can change the way I go about making decisions right now. This year, I want to focus on getting the most out of my youth, or at least what remains of it. Going to that dance. Joining that friend's club. Participating in a variety of activities with my friends outside of just the lunch table. Instead of only focusing on grades and my GPA, I want to live out the rest of my high school career to the fullest, creating memorable experiences left and right so that when I leave high school for good, I will have something truly valuable to remember it by: memories. If I can learn to live that way now, I will end up with a life filled to the brim with positive memories in every chapter that follows high school.