By: Jaz Rice
OwlFeed Journalist

As an 8th grader I dreamed about high school as being some magical place, where you would have a locker next to the hottest guy in school, who just so happened to sit right in front of you in your first period class, whom you would fall madly in love with and eventually marry.

The dream seemed less attainable the moment I stepped foot on the Raymond S. Kellis campus. Inevitably the first day of high school came and it was a ¨hot guy fun fest¨ or at least that is what I thought in my 13-year-old mind. I could not imagine having a relationship because there were so many guys to choose from.

As a freshman I did feel that I had an advantage as far as the teachers and the overall swing of things because my older brother was a junior and was well known. As the school year progressed I gained a lot friends and life could not have been better, until I saw my grades. I had lots of C´s and all of my new friends that I had gained slowly disappeared and my priorities began to fall back in line.

As the end of the year approached, I wanted to take more classes, so that I could graduate early, because high school was elementary school all over again, except the classes were a little harder and the kids were a little older. I was glad to see that I had made it through my first year of high school and I liked the fact that it could only get better.

Sophomore year looked pretty promising because I was more familiar with the teachers, the campus, and the overall flow of how things in high school worked. Six weeks into the school year I was living my best life, I met more people, my classes were great, and I was doing fairly well.

Little did I know I would be transferred to Agua Fria where I only knew the office staff and no one else. Because my grandma was the athletic secretary for some years I already knew all of the people in the office, and they knew me, before I was even thinking about high school. At this time school was not a place that I enjoyed at all. I didn’t know a lot of people and the dynamics were very different. In the first semester I observed how the other kids behaved and how it was similar to my old school. In the second semester I was put into dance, which was something I loved to do at Kellis. I met a lot of people through the dance program as well as in my new classes. I enjoyed how easy the classes were and how the teachers and rules were way more lenient I found that maybe Agua Fria was not that bad.

Before my junior year I was excited to not be taking any math classes because I had met all of my math credits, and truth be told, I was no math whiz, but I always managed to get through. I was very sad to find out that I had been put into honors precalculus because I did not need the class and I was not willing to put in the effort that an honors math class called for. I was also put into marketing and that class was great. I thought I would not like the class but it actually turned out to be really fun, and I met a lot of new people in there as well. Other than math, junior year was okay. I loved my teachers for the most part and I had got my first job at a flower shop. I only worked two days a week, but for someone without bills I was making bank. I had been in high school without my older brother for the first time and I was happy to know that I had one more year to get through before I was gone for good.

Senior year, what could I say, I was so excited to be at the top of the food chain, along with the easiest classes I have ever had. The first day of being a senior was awesome sauce, I already knew a lot of people and from the looks of my classes it was going to be a breeze. I got straight A’s the first semester and I was determined to do the same for the next semester. By the third week of school being a senior got old, really old. I only thought about graduation and I got accepted into the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU, which only made high school and its nonsense seem foolish. I did not have late start or early release because of the way my classes were set up. I felt bad that I wanted nothing more than to leave high so I did not bring it up with my counselor. I feel as though graduation is the bridge between high school and real life and I can’t wait to cross that threshold.  Goodbye Agua Fria, hello Arizona State University.