These past few weeks have been filled with all the final senior activities. From my final water polo game in Naperville North’s pool, my last high school dance, my last full day of school tomorrow, to now–the most important of course–my final blog. Looking back at all the blogs I’ve written this semester, I noticed almost all of them share one thing in common, they’re all tied together with memories. From explaining an experience I had in my blogs about my trip to Europe and the haunted house, my blog about my favorite Peter McPoland songs and what they mean to me, my blog about my favorite Converse with almost every one of them having a memory attached to why they’re my favorite, to finally my blog about photography and how to catch the perfect moment and capture a memory forever. Through these blogs I’ve learned how to retell my stories in my voice, which I think ties hand in hand with the Voices projects we ended the year with.
Not only did I learn the importance of my voice through the blogs, I learned the importance of listening to other voices through the Voices project. While doing my research, I learned about voices that were erased just for being who they were. But, I also learned that these voices didn’t just die out after being erased, they connected, created a community, and are now pushing for their voices to be heard again. I learned this through my research of the Two-Spirited community. When colonizers came they placed European gender norms onto the Native American communities, causing the erasure of Two-Spirited individuals. Looking to today, this community has begun pushing for gender equality and the return to pre-colonial Native American gender norms within their tribes. The conclusion I came to through the help of my Voices project was that even when you seem like you’re alone, there’s always going to be a community of people who will support you.
Though my Voices project helped open my eyes to this conclusion, I think this same conclusion could have been taken away from my time at North. Over the past 4 years, I’ve made and lost many friendships, but throughout all of them, I’ve kept a core group of friends that I always know I can lean on. Last night, as I looked through photos from prom, I found myself scrolling further back in my camera roll to photos from freshman year and my first dance at North sophomore year. As I scrolled, I found repeated faces that stuck with me throughout high school and just became appreciative of the community I’ve made throughout high school.
If I could give any advice to future seniors I honestly would use the famous Ferris Bueller quote, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” While this may seem corny and self-explanatory, I think it’s the perfect summary for senior year. Senior year moves so incredibly fast and I wish I had taken a couple more moments throughout this year to stop and appreciate where I was at that moment. Being able to write blogs about these moments throughout this year honestly helped me to take that moment and reflect, so I would advise any future senior to stop and capture a moment however they can, whether it’s sitting down and writing about it afterward or snapping a quick photo/video during that moment.
Kayley, I’ve absolutely loved reading your blogs over the course of this past school year! I love what you said about learning how to retell your stories in your own voice through the blogs, I completely agree as I feel like the blogs were the perfect opportunity to share any experiences or things that interested us, making them extremely fun and engaging. I also love the advice that you would give to future seniors; this year went be extremely fast, and I have appreciated the time taken to stop and reflect on all of the things that have happened. This has helped me better enjoy the experience and also learn valuable lessons along the way. Good luck with your future endeavors, you’re going to do amazing things!
Kayley, thank you for writing such an amazing reflective blog. I could relate to all of the feelings that you are having about the end of the year (and that last picture almost got me while I was reading). I agree that the Voices project was a very interesting experience and I feel that I grew a lot from doing it; I also really like the overall lesson that you learned from exploring the voices that were presented in your book. One of the most important things that I learned here is also the importance of a community to support you. I actually included something similar to your last point in my blog; one of the best pieces of advice that I have about senior year is also to take a second to look around because moments become memories so quickly that it is easy to look over something important. Finally, I really enjoyed how your blog was organized and the language that you used throughout it.
Kayley, I’m glad that your Voices project taught you that there will always be a community for you no matter what. I think this is something that is really important to remember as we all go off to college and try to make new friends and fit in. I also couldn’t agree more with your advice for incoming seniors. I feel like I am so ready for the year to be over so it can be summer, but it also makes me sad that we’re getting closer and closer to the end. It was nice seeing your old and current pictures, it really put into perspective how much we have all grown. Good luck on all your future endeavors, and thank you for being my friend across these 4 years.