I’d like to think of my time at high school as a bounded interval on a differentiable function, drawn resolutely with dark graphite. 

My memories of the past four years come to me in vivid scenes. A series of semi-picturesque vignettes, I would say, to compensate for my not remembering the first day of school. Something such as— karaoke in the orchestra room after dark; going over stats tests during lunch with my friends; and the skylights in the science building, shining overhead. All plotted haphazardly on a nice, smooth, curve.

So maybe my math skills were a little rusty from unuse, and I was strangely obsessed with psychology. But these, like all things, changed. Picture: a time series graph with wildly dramatic perceptions, measured rated happiness over time in monthly increments. And much like my desire to pursue a career in psychology, my anxiety in high school plummeted dramatically throughout the four years.

That’s just it, isn’t it? Things will change, and the optimist in me would like to think that everything that happened in my high school career occurred for a good enough reason. Now, nearing time t equals graduation, I would say that I recommend holding this attitude towards life.

By the extreme value theorem, a function that is continuous on a bounded interval must obtain an absolute maximum and an absolute minimum at least once within that interval. And my four years were, in fact, a scatter of maximums and minimums that always felt more absolute than the last. Failing a quiz in AP Computer Science = minimum. Taking journalism in my junior year and meeting some of my best friends as a result was most definitely a maximum.

Despite the turbulence, or in this case, the unpredictability of this theoretical math function-metaphor, I’ve since realized that high school is very much what you make of it. I encourage future students to explore activities and courses that excite; embrace change and opportunities that come your way; and surround yourself with people who can make you laugh until you cry and laugh in the middle of crying. Finally, don’t worry about following everyone else; be an influential observation! (Not the same as an outlier, btw.)

Lastly, a thank you to Mr. Smith, Ms. Landis, Ms. Wright, and Mr. Gonzalez for being very cool teachers and supporting me through my high school academic journey (I tried on my AP exams, I swear). Thank you to my friends for surrounding me with joy, and my family for supporting me always. 

I have to say, this has been a pretty amazing ride.