Opening your eyes to new, exciting experiences

At the beginning of high school, I quickly realized that things were going to change, but being someone who doesn’t adjust to it very well, I was forced to be open-minded and let life find its way for me.

My friends were on the swim team and I was on the golf team. Two completely different sports, which meant two completely different schedules.

Friday night football games weren’t the same, because my friends were all at practice. I started reaching out and opening up to other people so that I wouldn’t miss out on making memories because I knew if I didn’t I would regret it.

I had to allow myself to not be so timid and be more independent, which was hard for me. But, I’m so glad I didn’t let being afraid of sending a simple text to someone hold me back from enjoying different experiences.

To some people it might sound stupid because deep down it’s not that hard to branch out and it’s a completely natural thing to do have to do in life, but my best friends were the people I did absolutely everything with. In the least weird way of saying it, we have certain roles as friends with each other and it’s just easy because we know how it works.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all this it to not overthink reaching out to old friends or saying hello to someone new in the hallway because you truly never know where life will lead you and it’s important to be open to it all.

The friendships I’ve made over the past four years outside of my close friend group are just as important to me as those are and I will continue to cherish every single one of them as I begin to make new friends in the fall.