In recent news, we've all heard about the young girl who graduated college a week before high school, and oddly enough, I have a similar story. On May 10, 2014, I graduated with an associates degree from college before receiving my high school diploma. I'm obviously not your typical college student and that is all thanks to my high school for making this opportunity happen. With our high school campus sitting right in the center of a college campus, we were all warned about how hard this school would be, but still handled it like warriors. For me and the 72 other graduates in my class, I think we can all agree, it's been a crazy four years.
I remember freshman year like it was yesterday when we all met up for fish camp with just 125 students in our class. I met my first friend after getting lost in the hallways, ate every sugary item I could find in the school store and joined the yearbook committee. All seemed to be going well until we all got hit by the biggest curve ball of the year: the loss of a fellow classmate. Keep in mind, our entire grade was only 125 students, so we all knew each other. No one expected it and everyone was shocked, but it gave us one thing: a sense of unity and humility. It was a tough, but we made it through
Sophomore year was better. We dwindled down to about 110. All of us took AP World History and judged the freshmen as if we were any better than them. By this time, we took more college courses and started to get a taste of college work. Between trying to learn the basic functions in algebra, managing to stay awake in English and getting some what of a social life. In between that, we headed off to our junior year.
Junior year was a blur. Most of our classes were college courses by this point. I barely passed physics, I can tell you that. By that point we had dwindled down to about 90 kids, and now everyone noticed how this school was not meant for everyone. Our teachers and school administrators switched in and out and it slowly became my most difficult year. SATs, internships and scholarships were typically the only thing in mind besides grades. I will say I learned a lot that year, most of which were unfortunate. I dealt with a lot of personal loss and learned a few lessons the tough way around, but regardless summer came and a new start begun.
And now off to senior year. The somewhat glorious year that people always speak about that I never understood. By this time, our class had only 75 students, 73 of which, ready to graduate with an associate Degree. In the midst of the year, we were all focused on a billion different things all at once. Staying up to date with college applications, scholarships, financial aid, internships, jobs and grades was difficult enough. Without a doubt, it was hard keeping up with everything. At one point I even questioned myself if I should just leave the program now during my senior year. But now since it's all done and handled with, I can gladly say I did it.
Sitting around and planning our lives out was weird enough, but actually setting out and completing that weird goal was surreal. We all faces challenges and hardships but the fact that 73 of us, including myself, sat (and stood for like, two hours in super uncomfortable heels) through a five-hour ceremony at Reliant Stadium to receive our degrees before our diplomas, was flat-out amazing. To keep the message short: It's been good Horizons. It's been good :)
