How could I accurately sum up my four years at Agua Fria? 

Words can’t do it justice but I would say if I had to pick four years of my life to repeat, it would be these last four. 

Coming into my freshman year, I was still relatively the “new kid.” However, I had only moved to Arizona a year earlier. 

But I had some good friends by my side, including Rian Cameron and Katheryn Birkmeyer. They helped me through my 8th-grade year and continued to help me grow as a person throughout the transfer into high school. 

At first, I didn’t really enjoy high school but I made some friends pretty quickly. I met three of my first friends in my first period class of Web design: Caden, Brandon and Franklin. They have always been friends to me and I will cherish that.  

Immediately I was expected by my parents to take honors and AP classes in my high school career. So my first priority was to finish all my core classes.

Regretfully I overloaded my first two years with classes where I ended up getting 2 or fewer Cs. 

Honestly, those first two years were a blur beside some smaller moments. I did all of the hard classes and decided to do golf during my freshman year, but I wasn’t very good at it and I never got better, so I never ended up going to any tournaments for it. 

I quit golf after that and my parents told me that I had to be a part of two or more clubs if I played no sports. I had tried out for soccer but was too rusty and was cut in the first round of tryouts. 

I got involved in my friends’ Dungeons and Dragons club, which was a lot of fun and I continue to play the game to this day. I also joined Anime Club. I wasn’t a big anime fan but there were a lot of cool people there, such as Nathan Kramer, that I got to be pretty good friends with. 

In my sophomore year, I decided to create a gaming club that lasted about half a year. It was a pleasure to see about 30-40 people show up to the first meeting but that number quickly died down over time. I’m glad I have the experience of creating a club and organizing as it’s helped me with one of my two current jobs. 

My junior year was a turning point for me. It gave me two of my hardest classes with AP Stats and APUSH but it also felt the most freeing for me as it was my first year taking elective classes. I had doubled up on math classes during my freshman year so I had never had electives before and I enjoyed the electives I had. 

I also got my job during that year at Quiktrip and I still continue to work there. It’s helped me a ton to develop my working skills and helped me not procrastinate as much. 

I tried harder to make the most of school from then on. And I started off well with my favorite person by my side, Elijah Carson. 

I had many good teachers throughout the year but none quite inspired me as Mr. Gonzalez did. I had him my second semester of junior year for street law, and while I didn’t necessarily enjoy the material, I enjoyed his teaching very much so. 

And together a friend of mine in that class (Mackenzie Field) and Gonzalez convinced me to do Theatre the next year. And it was the best decision of my life. 

I was really nervous to join Theatre. I felt like I was a freshman all over again. I had done a lot of plays growing up but I was really out of touch with it. But I was destined to make this my best year. 

I quickly got very involved in Theatre to the point where I stopped working weekdays just so I could be there more. 

I met and reconnected with so many great people in theatre including Dayra, Sydnee, Katheryn, Rian, Adam, among so many other people. 

Being in theatre inspired me to go into it in the future to where I’ll be going into college for it. I loved being in Addams Family and it reignited my passion for theatre. 

Now the end of the year is here and I’m not saying goodbye, but until later. Try everything. Chances are it could be your hidden passion that you never knew about. 

I want to thank a couple of students and teachers who have helped me through my high school career. 

Thanks to every teacher I’ve had for shaping my high school experience and always being cool. 

Special Thanks to Mr. Gonzalez for helping me back into something I love. Seeing your passion for the art of theatre got me excited and I just wanted to delve deeper into it. 

Thanks to Franklin, Caden, Darren, Kat, Rian, and Brandon for being some of my first friends and always being there.

Special thanks to Adam, who despite being a grade below me, made me feel like an underclassman but has always been kind and a great friend and person. 

And final thanks to Elijah, who is the best person I could have ever gotten to know and I am so very proud of and I’m excited to see how he grows.

And of course, thank you for reading! Please, if you are debating on whether to do that one thing or not, go do it! You will not regret it!