As my four years at Dow come to a close, I’ve had the opportunity to go through the good and bad that every high school student goes through. I’ve played sports every single year of high school. I’ve been on the honor roll every semester. I’ve had some wild and crazy weekends. All throughout high school, I wanted to leave. So why did I stay then?

When I walked into the halls of DHS four long years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. After seeing pretty much all the shows, movies and news about high school, I had my mind made up and how everything was. I thought it was all about rampant drug use, people getting shoved into lockers and lots of fights happening in the halls every single day. I was really wrong.

As I would learn by my first hour that day, the teachers were very different. At least that was the case with Mr. Mosca in World History, who had a more grown-up teaching style. In my opinion, this meant we actually got to learn the entire subject. Not being restricted by anything was also a plus. Now school was less of an afterthought and more of a priority. You’d be thinking of it all the time, whether it would be schoolwork or just your friends.

Sports were a big part of my high school experience. I really do miss my playing days as a Charger football player. Thinking about two-a-day practices brings back lot of good memories with my friends, like waking up in the early hours of the morning to go to school and work out. The best part of all my years of high school though was my junior year, when our team beat Midland 24-0. I’ve never felt so happy and fired up to be a part of DHS as when we snapped a nine year losing streak and shut out our bitter rivals. Not only that, but hearing the band playing and being the focal point of the town on that night was just a surreal experience.

Oh, and the weekends were another highlight. Be it going to the bowling alley, playing mini golf, seeing friends in college, or going to parties, I always had fun. Meeting people was a key part of this. For example, I never even knew about my girlfriend until I met her on the weekend with my friends. You just never know what’s going to go on in Midland.

High school has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life, and as much as I want to graduate and go on to CMU, it feels bittersweet leaving this Dow routine behind.