If there is one thing that I have learned from high school, it is, don’t take anything for granted. High school can be whatever you make it. When you go into high school, you make new friends and start to truly discover who you are and who you want to be.

When I came into high school, I thought I knew what was going to happen; I believed that I would have more of the same experience that everyone else had. But that is not what happened; the unexpected occurred. When I came into High School, I joined a nationally ranked cheerleading team. But, the coach was not the coach the next year and, as a result, I had a total of four cheer coaches in four years. From this, I realized I should have been more thankful that I was a part of that awesome team. Every year after that, was a rebuilding as we got new coaches who had different coaching styles ideas. It didn’t cross my mind my freshman year that something like that could happen, but it did.

An even better example of how I learned that you shouldn’t take things for granted was the coronavirus outbreak. This caused the school to close too early and cut off many senior traditions I was looking forward to participating in. I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be able to do these things until I couldn’t.

When I first stepped into the school, my freshman year, I had no clue what I was walking into.But I was able to make new friends in high school and become the person that I am. I am so grateful to have been able to have these experiences and to be able to say that I had a great high school experience. Although unexpected things happened and it was difficult to deal with, it taught me the much needed lesson that will lead to happiness in the future.