Every year since fifth grade, in the last few weeks of school, I am reminded of a quote that sums up my life during that year. A quote that perfectly illuminates all the hows, whys and whats of that particular school year. 

This year, 2025-2026, I think that quote is Ferris Bueller’s notorious saying, “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.” 

All of a sudden I am ending my sophomore year of high school. I will no longer be an underclassmen in Truckee High School  ever again. I will never take the classes I took ever again. They are complete. As are the experiences that I will never get to relive ever again. 

It’s amazing how it all went by so fast, and yet it is incredibly sad at the same time. 

Figuratively speaking, I feel as though I closed my eyes on the slow motion video I was watching of my sophomore year of high school, and when I opened them the video had turned into a time lapse nearing its end. 

I am grateful for all the experiences I had and what I learned through them about both myself and the world. Most of all I think I experienced an overwhelming amount of personal growth, which has led me to a lot of new places, people and adventures. 

For me, it feels like the girl who started high school last year, scared out of her mind, is a completely different girl then the one I am now. 

But maybe that is what high school is all about. Of course everybody’s experience looks different, but in the end it really is just four years of riding a rollercoaster, becoming who you will be as an adult. 

I think in the long term sense, considering Bueller’s quote is a good way to reflect on how a year went for yourself. What did you lose over worrying about grades, sports or friends? What even happened?

And even though I am still only a sophomore, I feel at a crossroads where the thought of graduation stands to my right, and my first day of kindergarten to my left. Ahead of me there is no road yet, because it’s one I still have yet to make for myself. 

I guess I am beginning to understand that you really are only sixteen once.