When students hear the word “education,” they imagine mounds of classwork – both on paper and on their school-issued laptops – to be completed before a given due date. For the high school seniors of 2026 at Kenwood High, everything goes down to the wire as these exceptionally intelligent and ingenious students prepare themselves for graduation. These young adults began their high school journey in late August 2022. After these graduates toss their graduation caps in the air outside Towson University after receiving their diplomas, the world of college life and adulthood awaits them for their next journey.
The tradition of the graduation ceremony to conclude 13 years of education is a long awaited anticipated event. “By the time students reach 12th grade, they’ve spent years working toward their finish line of graduation. I think seniors deserve to be recognized for all their hard work and time and to celebrate them as they begin their next chapter in their lives. It’s a good time for seniors to spend their final moments with their friends and making memories that they will take as they leave high school and begin their careers, college, or technical school programs,” shares Ms. Thompson.
People have always told Kaylie and her classmates high school would fly by but “I never really believed them until now, sitting here looking at the countdown app on my phone with all of my upcoming events like ‘last day’, ‘graduation’ or ‘senior skip day’ the numbers feel exciting, scary, and upsetting all at once!”
Kaylie’s final thoughts on leaving high school behind-
The hallways have always looked the same to me which was crowded, loud, messy but recently I’ve been noticing the small things that I always ignored. The old sports pictures on the walls all around the school, the sound of my shoes hitting the floors, and the teachers standing at the doorways saying “good morning” like they didn’t watch all of us grow up for 4 years and become young adults.
Every little thing started to feel important because I knew it would all be gone soon. As I sat in second period psychology one day, I stared at the words written in dry erase marker “13 school days left for seniors” and “30 days until graduation” and then looked out the window to the parking lot where everyone’s car sat packed together with all the seniors who were about to become strangers.
That thought scared me the most. The thought of people being a part of your everyday life for four years and then suddenly disappearing into different cities, colleges, jobs and future. We were all about to part ways- maybe for forever.
There is a spot in the hallway on the 2nd floor where me and my friends have met up since freshman year and we named it the “middle” over the years because it was in the middle of the 2nd floor hallway and it just made sense. A lot has happened in the middle, basically my four years of high school could be told using that spot on the 2nd floor. The constant “go to class” from the hall monitors, the laughter, the tears, the 200th “meet me at middle; I have to tell you something” from my friends, all of the hugs before class and saying “love you” or bye” or “see you later for practice”.
I wonder if any of them felt the same way as me and if they already missed those moments as they were happening. After school on the last day, I will probably stay a little later than usual, walking through the halls listening as the hallways slowly echo with lockers shutting for the last time and voices getting more distant as everyone is leaving, getting excited for it to be summer and for school to be out.
I slowly walk past classrooms that held a piece of my life inside of them. There’s room 132 where I gave a presentation freshman year with shaking hands. There’s the locker room I would change in before games and get my hair braided while everyone was laughing, just getting ready. There in the distance sits the soccer field where we lost games, won games, got hurt, where I scored my first goal, where I celebrated with friends after winning a game. Even the stupid stairwells that I hated going up everyday started to feel sentimental now.
As I walk down the steps getting ready to leave and walk out of the school doors for the last time as a student, tears start to form in my eyes knowing I’m going to need to sign in on the “visitor” side of the paper next time I try to enter. Four years of my life shoved into a building or even a bookbag with papers crumbled at the bottom, gum wrapper trash, the pen marks on the inside of the little pocket of my bag because I forgot to close the lid and a schedule from my senior year when graduation felt so far away and I once thought I had a huge amount of time.
It’s time to think about college and my plans for the future when in a blink of an eye I now feel so rushed to do everything in a short amount of time. High school wasn’t perfect. There were days I cried in the bathroom stalls, days I hated being there, days where I couldn’t wait for my senior year and to graduate wishing time would go by faster.
But there were also times where I found myself wanting to come to school as an “escape”, days where my teachers believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, late night drives after dances, having a team that felt like an entire family
And now it is over. The final bell will ring loud and sharp and for the first time in four years it won’t be as annoying. I’ll just stand there for a second longer, letting the silence kick in. It’s here- tomorrow I will walk across the stage wearing a cap and gown while everyone claps and cheers saying, “it’s just the beginning”- beginning of adulthood and beginning of new opportunities. But standing there in the hallway felt like the ending of something I could never get back.
But maybe that’s what growing up really is… learning how to hold on and let go all at the same time.
