10 years ago today, I graduated from high school, and officially became a part of the Mountain View High School Class of 2007. My, how time flies. In many, many ways I still feel like that 17-year-old girl, on the brink of life, of adulthood. But I can also look back at her and think, wow, how far I’ve come, how much I’ve grown.

I graduated high school at a young 17, ready to attend my dream college – Brigham Young University – with dreams of conquering the world. I was naive, and sentimental, and thought that all my dreams would come true, exactly as I dreamt them then. But of course that didn’t happen, and all for the better. But this isn’t a post about how great my life has been since, but rather, how my life was, then. My thoughts and feelings and dreams as a high school senior, and how I created the fondest memories, and gained the greatest friends.

Last week I attended D’s National Honors Society Graduation. As I sat there in her high school auditorium, emotions overwhelmed me, and I wrote the following:

I’m one of those saps who loved high school. Absolute loved it. Today I’m emotional, emotional at reminiscing on those great and formative years. Emotional at how it felt to be a senior, and to be, briefly, on top of the world. To be at that special moment, the tipping point, about to spill into real life. To have that feeling that, to borrow a line from a favorite book – we are infinite.

Sometimes I wish I could go back, but then, I look at my life now and smile, and think that these kids don’t know what’s ahead. Both the highs and the lows. Life is really amazing. All of it.

I’ve already posted a bit about my adolescent years here, so you know that I was busy, super-involved, and was constantly on-the-go. I dated, I danced, I went to sporting events, I served my school and community, I worked, I hung out with friends. There are really no words to describe the good times that I had, or the emotions that I felt. I feel in love for the first time, I got my heart broken for the first time (and a few subsequent times), too. High school, especially my senior year, was full of drama, of heart break, of flirting, of butterflies, of school dances.

And then came the last month of school, and prom, and graduation, and all the other events and opportunities that come with that time of life. I get the chills just thinking about it, about that possibility and wonder that comes with transitioning from childhood to adulthood. We think we are so wise and mature, but we’re really just at the very beginning of learning what life is all about.

At our senior all nighter — I’m the one with the big mouth in the middle, in case you couldn’t figure that out.

The time of graduation is special. It’s the first step into the unknown, it’s feeling that sweet, sweet anticipation – combined sadness, excitement, and nervousness. It’s the end of a good thing, and the start of a greater thing. We are thrust from the nest, as it were, and we hope to God we fly. We don’t know what’s to come. What memories will fade, what dreams will come true, what dreams will fall apart, what dreams will change. We just know that it’s a new beginning, a chance to become who we’ve always wanted to be.

Closing Time
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from.
Closing Time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

10 years ago, I was in love, I was nervous, I was excited, I was sad, I was scared. I walked out of my high school’s doors one last time. I said my goodbyes to both friends and teachers who changed my life. I left behind my childhood, and walked into adulthood. I left behind teenage dreams, and started chasing bigger goals.

I hope you’ve lived it up in the 10 years since graduation, fellow Bruins. And thanks for the memories.