A farewell from the West Side Story class of 2018

Dear Me, High school is going to be an experience. Be prepared. There are going to be times when you question what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, but it’ll all be worth it. You’ll learn lessons along the way, and they’ll make you a better person. Being in a relationship in high school just because you like the idea of it doesn’t make it valid. You’ll be glad when you’re ou...

Dear Freshman Fenna, The next four years are going to be quite the rollercoaster (so take your Dramamine!). You will definitely have some moments that you wish you could disappear as easily as Harry Potter in his invisibility cloak. But alas, you can’t; so instead, listen up and you can avoid some ish that happens with the advice of your new friend, Senior Fenna. First off, do not order ...

“Revolution.” Ever heard of the song? Do you know who sang it? How about “Hey Jude?” I bet more people know who sang that. Both songs actually came out in 1968 on the same Beatles 45 rpm record, with “Hey Jude” on the A-side and “Revolution” on the B-side. The B-side of records was for the less important song. Although some did make it high on the charts, most were shadowed by the singe...

Dear freshman Teekma, You took some L’s. Like when you were ditched at homecoming. And maybe getting cut from the soccer team. But you learned from those experiences. You learned what not to do at homecoming (or who not to ask?) and that you could play virtual soccer instead! More than that, you had good memories playing frisbee in the courtyard on Thursdays and discovering your interest in writing...

Receiving my first B during first trimester of freshman year. I guess I really underestimated the difficulty of English 9. To my English teacher, please keep on teaching the grammar unit. Thanks to you, yes, I did earn a solid 89 in the class, but on the other hand, I scored a 35 on the English section of the ACT all three times I took it. It wouldn’t be a senior column if I didn’t include an AP Eur...

All I wanted to do was move to California. I thought by way of sunshine I’d suddenly find myself in “my place.” This all changed when I met some rando Californian on Reddit. She posted looking to hang out with someone in IC (I am NOT recommending this), and we met up. We ate “Local Burritos” at the Farmer’s Market and apple turnovers at Wilson’s, biked down Rohret, hiked to the spi...

Beginning freshman year, everyone is the new kid, right? I think it is safe to say some more than others. When I walked through the doors on the first day, I had exactly one friend. I moved from Regina to West because I wanted to have opportunities that Regina didn’t offer. I never thought about how hard it would be to make friends. I wouldn’t consider myself antisocial, but I do have a harder ...

I’ve had my share of bad days at West, but one day last October was particularly awful. I was honestly doomed from the start, but my feelings were intensified by a rough Spanish presentation. To make matters even worse, as tears welled up in my eyes a girl turned to me and said, “Your face is all red and blotchy.” In all fairness, she probably wasn’t that blunt. Still, the tears that were...

It’s hard to know what shaped me the most in elementary school: Bubblegum Boulevard Boutique in Mr. Shoppa’s class (everyone wanted to be bank teller and for the “my strengths” question, I wrote: I’m good at math. I’m not.), blank books, Kafka conversations with Mr. Fisher, the failed bridge, how Ms. Miller used to hold my hand when I was first in line...And in high school, how it ...

Over the last four years, so many things in my life have changed. But the one thing that has stuck with me is sports. Whether it’s participating in athletics, covering them or attending games, sports have always been something I could trust to be a constant. However, when I first started high school I didn’t even like seeing sports on my Twitter timeline. My parents forced me to join cross country ...

I remember at the end of freshman year when I thought, “I don’t think I’ll miss this in college.” And now I’m sitting here thinking about all the weird and wonderful memories from the past four years of my life. Ones that I’ll look back on this fall that will make me cry and laugh and most likely cringe. But most importantly, ones that will make me miss this chapter in my life. These are t...

After bearing the burden of the tradition of excellence for four long years, my high school experience at West has drawn to a much-anticipated close. At the peak of high school seniority, the time has come for me to impart some of my latent wisdom in a series of mostly inapplicable, dismissive remarks, to all unfortunate enough to happen upon this column.   Learn to drive freshman year; otherwise, you...