High school was such an interesting and fun experience for many people. For me, I felt like I didn’t make the most of it but I’m glad to finally be done. There were troubling times and then with COVID coming into the picture, it made it harder. On a good note, I’ve made so many close friends that I can see myself being friends with for the rest of my life. I’ve joined things (and quit them) and gained new experiences; I even pushed myself out of my comfort zone and joined ACTS my sophomore year. I’ve had so many incredible experiences that I’ll remember my whole life.

My favorite year had to be freshman year. I felt the most at peace during my freshman year. The orientation and freshman retreat tugged on my nerves but that’s normal, to be nervous in a new environment. I even had my grade school friends, Amahd, TaKeysa, Sanaa, and my best friend ever, KJ, so it truly wasn’t that bad of a year. I made new friends like Maddie, Sarah Fallouh, Ezra, and many more who I know I will keep in touch with forever. Freshman year, honestly, didn’t prepare me this much for this part of senior year, which is expected, but I didn’t know time would go by this fast. 

All the teacher’s I’ve had over these four years had to be the best I ever had, especially my English teachers and Spanish teachers. I came into high school expecting the teachers to just be mean and grouchy, but I would always come into school looking forward to seeing my favorite teachers because of how caring they all are.

Carroll was just such a welcoming community for me; I’m sad I didn’t get involved more. I think my nervousness got the best of me and I barely joined anything or, if I did, I quit. It’s not Carroll and the people: it was me because I couldn’t find what I quite enjoyed. Carroll did prepare me for that, though, to always be involved, so I’m hoping to get more involved in my university when I get there.

Overall, the best part of Carroll was the friendships I built with everyone. I will admit, I had those hard days where I didn’t want to go to school but when I still went, I always smiled no matter what and that is because of the environment. I’ll miss Carroll, for how small it was and for all the weird things that would go on in my classes that would make the day just so much funnier. Though I didn’t have many, I will miss my friends. I’m afraid of drifting apart from most of them. I’ll miss the lunches I had every year with KJ and the others and how fun those were (even though we’re going to be roommates in college). I’ll especially miss how passionate everyone is to their faith, no matter what religion. Even though this year was not ideal and I ended up going virtual, it still will have a good impact on me and I know I will be missing the English Zoom calls.