A collaboration with the Westfield High School Journalism Program
June 2024: A Bittersweet
Farewell to High School
June 2024. Bittersweet is the only appropriate word to describe it. The rush of emotions that range from sadness to joy. This has been the date that was given to us from the beginning, the year 2024 was written on our Elementary School apples. For the longest time, June of 2024 seemed so far away, a date we were waiting for that almost seemed unreal. But now, it has finally arrived. The wait is over.
Driving through the neighborhoods you can see the sprinkling of, “Congratulations WHS student” signs placed across the lawns of families with graduating seniors. Stores are crowded with students picking out prom dresses, graduation outfits, gifts and college merchandise.
The thought of school ending has been swirling around in my head for a while now. The Westfield halls will no longer echo with laughter. There will be no staying after class to talk to my favorite teachers, no friday night sports games. Everything we are living today will just be a memory we all talk about in the past tense. Our time in highschool will soon be over.
This next step forward is the separation from everything we are comfortable with. Saying goodbye to Westfield and our families, friends, restaurants, clothing stores we love, schools we know already, is a lot harder than I ever imagined it would be. The friends we have here who are less than a 10-minute car ride away will now be friends who are scattered across the country. I will no longer be able to come home from my classes and be able to easily walk in the front door and tell my mom about my day. While I know she will only be a phone call away and right now that seems ok, what if it isn’t and the distance seems overwhelming?
We are starting over in a new place— A new environment, new school, new friends, new everything. We are changing from a place where we have been so comfortableandgoingsomewherewith an incredible amount of unknowns. Things we took for granted with people we grew up with will have to be explained to new friends. all the stories and experiences will have to be retold so that new friendships can be formed and new friends can begin to know you the way your home friends already do.
There are additional concerns that are filling my head. Will college be too hard academically? Will I be able to be alone? Did I choose the right school?
While these questions can be overwhelming and at times cause anxiety, the unknown can also be exciting. It represents opportunity and potential to start from a blank canvas. Who will I meet? What will I learn? How will I grow as a person both personally and academically?
As a younger sister, I have the benefit of having seen my older sister already go through the same issues I am going through now. She had her June graduation. It wasn’t June 2024 but it was the same as what I am going through now. She was able to find her new friends at school, join a sorority, find a major and just came home from studying in Rome. These are the things I think about when I get butterflies in my stomach about graduating. I am nervous moving forwards but I have come to realize it is okay, and that I am more excited for what is to come.
