Graduation, Vacation, and College

I haven’t posted for a while.  I’ve been so busy…so naturally, I have a lot to talk about.

End of Senior Year/Graduation

Last week, I graduated from high school.  It’s just hitting me now how scary that is.  For my whole life, I’ve gone to school from 7:30 to 2:20, Monday through Friday, September through June.  And now, suddenly, it’s over.  Soon, I’ll be moving on to an entirely new chapter in my life, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Before we left high school though, we celebrated, with so many amazing events.  First, nineteen of my classmates and I were honored in the top 10% luncheon, where we invited a teacher who inspired us to speak on our behalf.  I asked my coach, whom I’ve written about here before.  His speech was funny, heartwarming, and enlightening, and I couldn’t have chosen a better person to come to the luncheon.  He talked about the time I got lost during a cross country race, during my first season running.  He then went on to talk about how much I’ve improved since then, despite some obstacles in the road.  But it was what he said at the end that really struck me: he said that I was a young lady who got lost, but found her way and emerged, better and stronger than ever.  I nearly started crying, in front of everyone.  What an amazing metaphor for life: we all get lost, whether due to an eating disorder, or some other obstacle we encounter, but we all have the capability to find our way again.  My coach is simply amazing.

Then, there was graduation.  It was simply an awesome, surreal ceremony.  Again, I nearly burst into tears when my principal announced that I was our class’s salutatorian.  I could not be more humbled or honored to receive this award.

Following graduation, my best friend came over for sandwiches and cake, and then we went to grad night.  Usually, I hate huge parties that last until 3 am, but I had so much fun, and for 5 blissful hours, I didn’t care about anything else but having a great time with my classmates.

Vacation

Two days after I graduated, my family and I left for a week long cruise to Bermuda.  It was my first time out of the country, and my first time on the cruise.  I was really nervous; I wouldn’t know anyone else there, and the style of cruise was basically such that you see the rest of your family for dinner, if that.  The first few days were rough…there were way too many people, way too much to do, on a ship that was so big you could all too easily get lost on it.  And the food.  It was constantly accessible, and there were entirely too many options.  I was overwhelmed the first morning, walking into breakfast and seeing an entire deck dedicated to hundreds of different breakfast foods.  Eventually, I forced myself to stop panicking and grab what looked good.  All in all, I had a great time, and even though it seemed like I was eating way too much at some times, I reminded myself that it’s just a week vacation, and in the long run, it won’t matter at all.

College

Finally, college!  I have my roommate!  The girl I roomed with at orientation and I decided to request each other, since we have very similar interests, and basically did everything together at orientation.  I am so excited and scared; this is just one more step towards my new life at college this fall.

Anyway, sorry for the long post :O

Has anyone else had any lifechanging (or not-so-major) events in their life recently?