When I was first told by my friend and Editor In Chief, Eli Morkert, that I had to write a senior goodbye, I expected it to be way easier, but at the moment, I am struggling. High school has been a very interesting four years of my life. A lot of good things happened, but there was also a fair share of not-so-amazing things too. So much has happened in such a short period of time that I don’t know what to include. But as my time here at RMHS is coming to end, I think it is important for me to express what I have learned.

In general, reflecting on my past few years, I have had a blast. I personally have learned a lot of new things about myself that I would have never imagined would ever come up in my life. My first very small piece of advice is that you are bound to make mistakes, so learn how to resolve them with no stress. I know it sounds super cliche, but it’s true. You aren’t going to ace every test or every assignment. There are many great teachers at this school that are more than willing to help you succeed. Not everything about high school is going to go pristine. You might also struggle socially. I definitely did. I have made a lot of mistakes in regards to my friendships, although I was able to fix those things, and now those friendships feel like a family relationship. 

It is heavily advertised throughout high school to try and get involved with as many activities as you can handle. I agree that every student should get involved, but for my second piece of advice, I want to preach the importance of time management. I was involved in 3 or 4 activities throughout my high school career and I was able to manage my time well, for the most part. I wasn’t the greatest at time management, which is why I’m emphasizing right now to stay organized and on task. I struggled at some points because I procrastinated and had a lot of activities, but I still was able to work hard and get everything done on time. The last thing you want to do as a student is to fall behind. If you get your work done and stay on task, it will be way easier to get through all of your activities, and through high school in general.  

In addition to all of this, COVID did snub nearly half of my time in high school, which caused many limitations. For obvious reasons, sitting on a zoom call for hours was definitely a struggle, but I think for there to be an occurrence of a global pandemic, I got very lucky with its timing. The end of sophomore year was the most optimal time to have it, although I obviously wish it never had even happened. I was still able to experience the transition from middle school to high school during my freshman year, survived sophomore year, had a full online junior year, which is debatably the hardest year of high school, and I was able to experience a semi-normal senior year. It did take a while to get into the swing of things, but I was able to persevere.   

For context, I graduated from a small private middle school, Our Lady of the Wayside, so I was quite terrified about what high school had to offer. My high school career began in the summer of 2018 when I had my very first camp. Lucky for me, my older sister was a senior in the class for the camp I was taking, so I felt generally comfortable. But the band wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea. Now don’t get me wrong, I had a great time my freshman year in this class. I mean, through the camp, I was able to meet and make my first small group of friends, apart from the select few that I already knew from middle school. The teachers were phenomenal people and I had a fantastic time. But I felt as if I was forced to be a part of the program because my sister was in it. 

My final piece of advice is that once you step foot through those doors on your first day of school, you have total control of how you want to shape your future. So many important things are thrown at you during this awkward stage of your life. I felt super stressed freshman year because I was essentially pushing myself to be doing something that wasn’t my true passion. So I had to make my first big decision. I chose to focus on something that was more important to me, which was playing soccer. It is crucial to pave your own path once you enter high school, and thankfully for me, soccer led me to do so. 

I worked extremely hard in both soccer and academics, and they have both heavily influenced the way I act. I had the honor of playing among several fantastic kids during my soccer career here at RMHS. The soccer team had one of its best seasons this past year, and I had the opportunity to be able to lead with my best mates as captains, and focusing on playing was easily one of the best decisions I have made at school. I am anticipating next year is going to be very difficult, but I am very excited to see how being a Rambler at Loyola University of Chicago is going to treat me. 

Goodbye RMHS.