The last chapter we thought was too far to reach is now a step away. Our senior year high school moments became a bittersweet flood we always knew would eventually arrive.

The memories full of life that we wish would never end come with the bittersweet realization that greater only comes after this step. The friendships that were made, the late nights of studying for each exam, and the late nights spent at games are all moments that will merely become funny stories to tell in the next chapter. They will be missed no matter how much we dreaded them before. Each photo taken captures a moment in time. The cycle we once knew is about to change forever. 


We’ve all adjusted to waking up at 6 a.m. for five days a week, hoping for 12 years we didn’t. The students we have known since kindergarten soon will be standing beside us in line one by one. The sleepless nights studying for an exam and the mounds of homework each day that were never wanted will be a thing of the past. 



Football games, basketball games, prom night, and even school programs that we all attended will be captured in a handful of photos. Those pictures capture our high school years reminding us exactly what we were like and what it felt like before our high school journey ends. The friend groups we have made and all the pranks pulled in school will soon become merely a memory of what it felt like to be young. The trouble we recall getting in now becomes a funny story to tell one day. The romance that seemed to be like a movie in students’ eyes, now seems like a naïve moment to laugh about. We are learning how wrong we were with the idea that school lasts forever.


Class rings and photos from every year become one of the most valuable items we possess — important keepsakes to hold on to forever. Senior outside pictures and cap and gown pictures seem like the best photos we will ever take. The imperfections we see in photos we took in our underclassmen years are now perfect in every single way. The bittersweet ending of a chapter that seemed so far away can now be seen clearly.

Appreciating all the late nights studying, the homework and the friendships you have made, Every moment in high school is now cherished because it will soon come to an end. Each senior photo taken is like a realization that your new chapter is about to begin. The life of living with no regrets changes. You realize your high school experience was exactly how it was meant to be. You realize the bittersweet moments knowing high school will end shows you exactly how your high school years could not have been more perfect.

(Rachael is a senior at Harlan County High School and a student in John Henson’s English/writing class)