Lucky. I am beyond incredibly lucky. Despite every circumstance stacked against me, everything sort of worked itself out and somehow I made it. Truthfully, I thought there was no way I would make it through all four years of high school while remaining a member of Jaguar Media, and I think a lot of other people thought I wouldn’t make it through high school period. Yet, here I am. I really hope it isn’t rude to say that I’m extremely glad that this is almost over. Not the media portion really, but the gruesome four years of waking up early and going to a building that kinda always smells weird no matter how many air filters are installed. 

Going into my freshman year of high school, I was an entirely different person. I spoke differently, thought differently, and basically lived in an entirely different world than I do now. I think that version of me is physically unrecognizable compared to the present-day version. It’s very fair to say that being in school here has shaped me into the person that I am now. Pretty much every single year of high school I’ve learned more and more about who I am and what I value. In some ways, it has made me a much better person, and in other ways, it has made me deranged and unstable. 

However, throughout all four years of this mess and transformation, I remained a member of Jaguar Media. At times, I was borderline detrimental to the newspaper team, but despite my efforts, they pulled through. 

To Maxie, I thank you for putting up with it. It being me and all of the conversations and disorganization I bring. You are a magnificent writer and patient soul. I don’t know how you have managed to stay on top of your responsibilities and mine at the same time while remaining so calm and organized. I will absolutely miss you, and I know that you are going to be completely successful in whatever you pursue in your life. 

To Mac and Avery, I would wish you good luck, but I know that you will not need it. You both have already shown so much drive and dedication, that I know you could take any route with this newspaper and it would turn out wonderful. Both of you are blessed with talent and there’s not a single doubt in my mind that you guys are going to be great. I’ll miss you both and I hope you’ll miss me a little bit too. 

Now to the people who have made my suffering bearable and worthwhile. Whitney, Hope, Carah, Brendon, and so so many others, I cannot express how great of an impact all of you have had on my life. Some of you I’ve known all four years and others only for the last year or so, but you’ve all changed me for the better. I do not know where I would be without any of you, and honestly, I don’t even want to think about a world where I haven’t known all of you. 

I can’t say that I’m truly prepared for the future, but I don’t think any of my peers could truthfully say the same. There’s guaranteed to be a lot of struggle and misfortune in my future, especially considering my impulsivity and complete lack of discipline, but the past four years have given me tons of experience in dealing with the consequences of my own stupidity. Even if I can’t predict or even make a general ballpark guess as to where my life will go, I can know that I am able to withstand a certain threshold of self-induced pain and misery. I feel like I’m coming across as a really negative person here, but I swear I’m super optimistic about my future. I never thought I would be the kind of person to get super excited about graduating, but now it is actually all that I ever think about. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and everything will just work itself out all over again.