This is my senior column. This is the last thing I’m ever going to write for The Talon, which is a pretty cool milestone. This is probably the most important piece I’ve written, second to the review of the drinking fountains at Rochester that I didn’t even finish.

Freshman, sophomore and junior year I didn’t participate in sports or clubs. I played guitar outside of school but I didn’t really practice and only showed up for my lessons. I went to school for 8 hours and went home.

Starting in September, I started actually caring about guitar and taking greater care of my health. I was practicing guitar 7 days a week for at least 30 minutes. I began logging calories into a fitness tracker app and going to the gym five days a week. I didn’t know how long I would be doing this for, but 237 days later of consistent meal logging and 90 minutes at the gym almost everyday, I’m down a decent amount of weight. It’s nowhere near where I want to be, but it’s a start.

When I first saw the scale start to move back in September, I thought by now in May I would be a lot happier, I would be  participating in school events more and making new friends. That didn’t happen. I still rush out the building during lunch to go home and eat lunch by myself. I still wear the same outfit almost every day. I still spend my weekends at my part time job or hanging out at home. I still feel like the same person I was back in September

High school ends in less than two weeks for me, and even though I just got on a soap box and ranted about how miserable my life was, my time at Rochester was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything else. The teachers here are the best and truly care about every student they have. As cliche as it is, I’m looking forward to seeing what college has in store for me.

So in the unlikely event some freshman is reading this and I’ve kept your attention to this paragraph, hear me out for this one thing: participate in something. Try a sport or a club, or whatever. Just do something. You’ll probably hear this same advice from someone else at some point during high school and it may sound cheesy, but it’s good advice. Find something that interests you because four years may seem like a time, but it goes by quick.