My entire summer slipped away right before my eyes. I only have three more days left in my home town before my family departs for vacation in Kauai. Once we arrive home from our trip, I fly out the very next morning for Houston, so these three days will be the last three to see several of my friends before we leave for school.
It still has not truly hit me that I will be done saying good-bye to the friends I have made over the last 18 years in a couple of days. I have been friends with some of these wonderful people since near birth. I have been blessed to have been able to maintain many old friendships as well as develop several more new ones over the last few years in high school. I'll dearly miss them all when we are all miles apart.
Just yesterday I said goodbye to my good friend of a number of years, Naba. Her family has just moved to Saudi Arabia, and she's leaving to spend the rest of summer there before college. She's only one of many of my close friends whose family has moved away from our hometown... It sure is strange driving through the neighborhood and seeing other people's cars parked in my friends' old houses. My whole town is changing before my eyes. I know it's crazy to hope that everything will freeze in time and stay the way I remember it all looked in the past, but I secretly wish for that. Instead, old buildings are being torn down and completely unrecognizable buildings are being constructed in their place. When I return for winter break, I have a feeling I won't be able to recognize my high school due to the major construction that has been/is still going on. Roads are being repaved. The tree outside my house was recently cut down.. my elementary school was just re-painted.. the city's newly revamped library will be done with construction in a few months.. the dirt field on the other side of town will soon be transformed into a bustling shopping center.. half of the stores in the mall by my house will be torn down to make room for new ones.. my acupuncturist will be getting a new office.
One of my closest friends, Annette, is currently doing intense summer physical training at the Westpoint Military Academy in NY. I currently cannot communicate with her via Internet nor phone. I need to send her something via snail mail soon. I don't know when I'll see her next.
Still more friends are spreading all across the country. We are all going our separate ways... following different paths... discovering and carving our own definitions of success..Everyone and everything is changing and moving on. My town. My friends. My family. Me. It's all exciting and frightening at the same time.
I have heard several warning stories from people who say that it is only natural to lose contact/break off with high school friends after college. Some others re-assure me that it is definitely possible to maintain high school friendships and tell me about that their high school friends are some still some of their closest friends even several decades after graduation. I don't know what will happen. I don't know how the natural course of time will change each one of us. I sure hope that I will maintain contact and meet-up with several friends during breaks. Still yet, I hope to embark on insane adventures and exotic trips with a few, fulfilling all the life plans we painted for ourselves during high school (Helena.. Zion spring break, Vietnam next summer, yes. Ahhhh.... oh yes and all of the people I mentioned Forrest Fenn's treasure to..). As much as I hope to have things go according to current plans, I understand that life doesn't work like that. People get busy. People move away. People make new social networks. I understand.
The only promise I can make to others and myself is that I'll always cherish and be thankful for the great memories I've made with friends & family over the past 18 years. Thanks for all of the relationships and great times, everyone. You've all touched my life in some way or another and made my life worth living. When I think of the most rewarding times over the past 18 years, money and red marks on paper don't come to mind. Instead, I think of... cheering on my sister proudly finishing her first lap of freestyle by herself at the other end of the pool.. finding the bottle cap in the preschool sandbox while digging to China with Marissa .. watching my parents laugh and drink from each others' strawberry lemonade glasses during their 25th anniversary dinner.. carelessly jumping from rock to rock on the jetty with Anna after biking back from Santa Monica for the first time.. getting all my friend's college acceptance news via group iMessage.. taking pictures of Annie hugging her teeny puppy (now very large) for the very first time.. running for a high-five with doubles partner Cody during freshman year after a long point.. finishing my butterfly race and seeing Taylin going absolutely crazy freaking out and cheering for me at Bay League Finals... finishing my first lap driving in the parking lot with my dad for the first time...celebrating my grandmother's 80th birthday in the Yosemite National Park, one of her favorite places in the world.. throwing off my graduation cap (symbolically) alongside my classmates.. counting up the $40 third-grade Janet and I (and siblings) made after a long-day's hard work at our lemonade stand.. Nicole and I finally somehow managing to lug a huge tub of sand up from the beach to my car without dying of rib-shattering laughter.. frantically but victoriously running down hotel stairs in Xuzhou with Helena.. finishing another day at the hospital with Naba.. freaking out over our amazing guess of the temperature of the SciOly thermo container with Lauren.. seeing my friends' attempts at cheering me up whenever I was down.. Kellie taking me on a nice walk at the beach on the day I really needed some distraction.. reading Leah's yearbook message about how we both fulfilled a goal during senior year that I predicted we would in her yearbook the previous year ;)... successfully squeezing 6 people into 2 beds during sophomore year... and discreetly and silently getting 6 people out of one window onto the hotel roof.. successfully making it through a long summer of Elite with Annette.. making Sarah happy by taking her to Chipotle on her b-day during a Peter Pan rehearsal break.. finally getting my backhand over the net after a quick badminton lesson with Shawn.. assembling a functioning mini roller coaster model with Annette & Carina for Euro ..Ashley and I putting our hearts and souls into our first Fauver debate.. getting our tennis senior gifts.. standing up onstage amongst classmates/friends at our last China tour concert in Shanghai for our final bow.. getting excited with my boss about another last-minute discovery to add to my research poster the day before my presentation.. harvesting the elementary school garden with Growing Great.. and so, so, SO much more.
Thanks for the memories, everyone. I'll never forget you all. Thanks to modern-day technology-- namely Facebook-- I really won't. I might never see some of you again. But I don't need to see you again to happily reflect on happy shared times of the past. :)
I never got the chance to say my proper good-bye's to many of you, so good-bye.
However, I think it is more much necessary for me to say my proper "thank you"'s. So thank you, all, for making my 18 years of life full of happy moments and learning experiences.
I'll end this post with a couple nice group pictures/ summer highlights.
Tl;dr I love you all. Goodbye.
Just yesterday I said goodbye to my good friend of a number of years, Naba. Her family has just moved to Saudi Arabia, and she's leaving to spend the rest of summer there before college. She's only one of many of my close friends whose family has moved away from our hometown... It sure is strange driving through the neighborhood and seeing other people's cars parked in my friends' old houses. My whole town is changing before my eyes. I know it's crazy to hope that everything will freeze in time and stay the way I remember it all looked in the past, but I secretly wish for that. Instead, old buildings are being torn down and completely unrecognizable buildings are being constructed in their place. When I return for winter break, I have a feeling I won't be able to recognize my high school due to the major construction that has been/is still going on. Roads are being repaved. The tree outside my house was recently cut down.. my elementary school was just re-painted.. the city's newly revamped library will be done with construction in a few months.. the dirt field on the other side of town will soon be transformed into a bustling shopping center.. half of the stores in the mall by my house will be torn down to make room for new ones.. my acupuncturist will be getting a new office.
One of my closest friends, Annette, is currently doing intense summer physical training at the Westpoint Military Academy in NY. I currently cannot communicate with her via Internet nor phone. I need to send her something via snail mail soon. I don't know when I'll see her next.
Still more friends are spreading all across the country. We are all going our separate ways... following different paths... discovering and carving our own definitions of success..Everyone and everything is changing and moving on. My town. My friends. My family. Me. It's all exciting and frightening at the same time.
I have heard several warning stories from people who say that it is only natural to lose contact/break off with high school friends after college. Some others re-assure me that it is definitely possible to maintain high school friendships and tell me about that their high school friends are some still some of their closest friends even several decades after graduation. I don't know what will happen. I don't know how the natural course of time will change each one of us. I sure hope that I will maintain contact and meet-up with several friends during breaks. Still yet, I hope to embark on insane adventures and exotic trips with a few, fulfilling all the life plans we painted for ourselves during high school (Helena.. Zion spring break, Vietnam next summer, yes. Ahhhh.... oh yes and all of the people I mentioned Forrest Fenn's treasure to..). As much as I hope to have things go according to current plans, I understand that life doesn't work like that. People get busy. People move away. People make new social networks. I understand.
The only promise I can make to others and myself is that I'll always cherish and be thankful for the great memories I've made with friends & family over the past 18 years. Thanks for all of the relationships and great times, everyone. You've all touched my life in some way or another and made my life worth living. When I think of the most rewarding times over the past 18 years, money and red marks on paper don't come to mind. Instead, I think of... cheering on my sister proudly finishing her first lap of freestyle by herself at the other end of the pool.. finding the bottle cap in the preschool sandbox while digging to China with Marissa .. watching my parents laugh and drink from each others' strawberry lemonade glasses during their 25th anniversary dinner.. carelessly jumping from rock to rock on the jetty with Anna after biking back from Santa Monica for the first time.. getting all my friend's college acceptance news via group iMessage.. taking pictures of Annie hugging her teeny puppy (now very large) for the very first time.. running for a high-five with doubles partner Cody during freshman year after a long point.. finishing my butterfly race and seeing Taylin going absolutely crazy freaking out and cheering for me at Bay League Finals... finishing my first lap driving in the parking lot with my dad for the first time...celebrating my grandmother's 80th birthday in the Yosemite National Park, one of her favorite places in the world.. throwing off my graduation cap (symbolically) alongside my classmates.. counting up the $40 third-grade Janet and I (and siblings) made after a long-day's hard work at our lemonade stand.. Nicole and I finally somehow managing to lug a huge tub of sand up from the beach to my car without dying of rib-shattering laughter.. frantically but victoriously running down hotel stairs in Xuzhou with Helena.. finishing another day at the hospital with Naba.. freaking out over our amazing guess of the temperature of the SciOly thermo container with Lauren.. seeing my friends' attempts at cheering me up whenever I was down.. Kellie taking me on a nice walk at the beach on the day I really needed some distraction.. reading Leah's yearbook message about how we both fulfilled a goal during senior year that I predicted we would in her yearbook the previous year ;)... successfully squeezing 6 people into 2 beds during sophomore year... and discreetly and silently getting 6 people out of one window onto the hotel roof.. successfully making it through a long summer of Elite with Annette.. making Sarah happy by taking her to Chipotle on her b-day during a Peter Pan rehearsal break.. finally getting my backhand over the net after a quick badminton lesson with Shawn.. assembling a functioning mini roller coaster model with Annette & Carina for Euro ..Ashley and I putting our hearts and souls into our first Fauver debate.. getting our tennis senior gifts.. standing up onstage amongst classmates/friends at our last China tour concert in Shanghai for our final bow.. getting excited with my boss about another last-minute discovery to add to my research poster the day before my presentation.. harvesting the elementary school garden with Growing Great.. and so, so, SO much more.
Thanks for the memories, everyone. I'll never forget you all. Thanks to modern-day technology-- namely Facebook-- I really won't. I might never see some of you again. But I don't need to see you again to happily reflect on happy shared times of the past. :)
I never got the chance to say my proper good-bye's to many of you, so good-bye.
However, I think it is more much necessary for me to say my proper "thank you"'s. So thank you, all, for making my 18 years of life full of happy moments and learning experiences.
I'll end this post with a couple nice group pictures/ summer highlights.
 |
| Hiking in Topanga Canyon (Santa Ynez trial) Me, Shawn, Kimi, Will, Helena, Naba |
 |
| Surprising me on my 18th with dim sum. Kellie, Marissa, Annie, Me, Abby, Leah, Anna |
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| The Bund in Shanghai. The final stop of our China tour. Annie, Marissa, Taylin, Taryn, Kellie, Anna, Me, Helena |
Tl;dr I love you all. Goodbye.
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