This just happened to a friend of mine today, and it’s a great reminder to all of us as we go into our final week of senior year!
Here’s what she said:
While pretending to study in Starbucks this afternoon an elderly man came out of nowhere and put a cup of coffee on my table and walked away. I didn’t notice until minutes later that a letter was attached underneath. It just happen to contain some of the best advice I’ve ever received and all from a stranger:
“I couldn’t help but notice you seemed stressed and exhausted and are probably all of 22. Always remember life is not your job or your title, life is not your paycheck or your car, life is not the size of your house or the brand of your clothing; life is family, life is friends, life is fun, life is laughter. Spend time with those you love and tell them how you feel at every moment. Stop worrying, stop waiting, stop stressing; just go, just watch, just enjoy. I unfortunately didn’t realize this until I hit the ripe age of 79, but the last four years have been worth it and the best of my life. I dance (like a fool), I drink (a lot), I love (harder every day), and I laugh— really, really hard. I’m not telling you not to work hard. Work and find your place and what you love, but realize life won’t wait up for you. A second that passes is a second that’s gone. You’re young and have so much ahead. We don’t know what’s beyond us, but isn’t that the best part? I spent my entire life in the corporate world, watching weeks pass Monday through Friday from the inside of a corner office. Then I woke up one day and I was 79. I had a corner office, I had a nice car, I had an awesome condo on lake shore drive, but I had no stories, I have no grandkids, I have no pictures of annual family vacations. I don’t like to use the word regret, but I wish someone had told me at your age what I’m telling you. Promise yourself, you won’t let what happened to me happen to you. Don’t get caught, because before you know it, you’ll be 79. Make sure you have stories. Make it count.
P.S. You can drink the coffee, I promise I didn’t put anything in it.
Happy Monday,
Al”
Help my roommates and me with our Senior Year Bucket List!
One of our to-dos on our list is a post-it note challenge. For every person that reblogs this, we will write your URL on a post-it note and put it somewhere at Washington State University. We only have three weeks of school left and we need to complete our list before graduation on May 4th.
GUYS, TODAY WAS MY LAST DAY OF HIGH SCHOOL! I'M OFFICIALLY DONE!
I’m not sure how I feel. I’m not feeling all too emotional; I think that will happen on Thursday night during senior night and definitely at graduation but I feel happy today. It was great day. We had our senior breakfast. We sat outside until 11 and took pictures and had mindless chit chat and played football. Then we all took our last official lunch/mall trip together. It was bittersweet ya know. But we had a blast, being goofy and silly as usual. I’m glad I got to spend the day with my boos. They’ve truly made this day even better.
Senioritis: An Actual Affliction
It’s more than lethargy; it’s more than just “not trying.” When people told me about senioritis, I shall admit, I scoffed. I was not that kind of a person. Grades were never my goal, so why would I stop working if I believed that their significance has decreased? I was wrong. Senior year is draining. With APs, college apps, graduation, financial aid and a million other things to balance, it gets to a point where the candle that burnt so brightly at the beginning of the year burns out and you’re left with the faint glow of motivation that only decreases by the day. You’ve worked so hard, and all you really want is to be able to come to the surface and gasp for breath.
It’s even harder when you are what is considered a “good student.” When you have never really missed a deadline. When you have never walked into a test with oblivious to the subject of it. Every part of your brain screams as to how wrong this is. It tells you to sit down and write that essay, do that maths problem or even just read through and review what is on tomorrow’s test. But your body seems physically incapable of these tasks. So, you procrastinate. You read what isn’t assigned for English; you watch 5 seasons of a TV show in 3 days. And then when the time comes to face the music, that’s when you want to curl up into a ball and never get up.
I think that the thing that bothers me most is that I’m not really learning anything at this point. I love learning, I love knowing new concepts and ideas, but all that is done at this point in the year is prep. Prep for exams, strategise for essay sections, memorise for multiple choice questions. This is not what I enjoy, this is not knowledge, but this is the way it is. So, somehow, with a lot of will and even more courage to face the consequences of incomplete assignments we will (or at least we hope that we will) get through this. Till then, 41 days, 12 hours, 2 minutes and 29 seconds to go.
5/6/13
What Happened Today
- Took AP Chem exam (wasn’t bad!)
- Found out class rank/GPA :D SALUTATORIAN YAY HARD WORK DOES PAY OFF, END WITH A BANG NOT A WHIMPER
- I’m going to be giving a speech at graduation
- Mini party with Holsinger and my counselor
- Scrounged up enough coins (found the 5 extra cents I needed in the coin dispenser LOL) to buy an ice cream sandwich afterschool… THE VENDING MACHINE GAVE ME TWO WOW LIFE IS GOOD
- Literally ate two dinners
