By Haley Rough, Niles High School senior

Before I started high school, I had a completely unrealistic expectation of what the following four years there would be like.

I imagined walking in my first day and everybody lining up to earn their labels and stereotypes that would be stuck with them for the next four years. I pictured the typical classroom with paper airplanes being flown everywhere while the teacher continued to blab on and on. I believed that over half of my time would be spent passing from class to class and constantly socializing at my friends’ lockers. I imagined completely divided lunch tables in the cafeteria.

Media completely sabotaged my view on high school.

But what the movies and TV shows didn’t tell me is how much I would actually learn in high school about who I am. I never knew that in four years I would change so drastically. I didn’t know that going to football games and school dances or playing on a sports team would mold me into the person that I have become.

I’m not going to say that who I am today is who I will always be, but it is a start.

I was so ready to pack up and leave high school, but now that it is over, I would do anything to have another soccer season or go to another prom.

So, to any underclassmen, here’s a piece of advice that nobody directly told me: Live each moment like it may end any moment, because when you’re out of moments in high school, you will truly want it all back.

Niles High School was my stepping-stone into a brand new stage of my life, and although they did tell me that time would fly, I never imagined it would go so fast.

 

Haley Rough is valedictorian for the Class of 2014 at Niles High School.