Overarching Reflection Collingwood

It seems hard to believe that I have been at this school for the past 13 years of my life. Yet as I am looking back on them now it has felt like it has gone by in a heartbeat. When I started Collingwood back in kindergarden I had no idea what lay ahead of me. I had no idea the amount of opportunities and experiences that this school would have in store for me. Only now as I am only a few weeks from graduating do I truly understand how the four strands of academics, service, arts, and athletics have truly helped shape who I am today as an individual. Despite them just being four common words that to anyone else in the world would probably mean nothing to if you put them all together; Collingwood has brought about a meaning behind each of those words that has stories that shape every student and teacher that passes through this school. The academic strand has taught me the ability to achieve academically and set goals for me to strive for and watch myself succeed in ways I did not even imagine possible. The service strand has allowed me to interact with not only my peers but with my community on a personal level that I would not of been able to reach otherwise. The arts strand has allowed me to explore my creative side and helped me discover new things such as I am an awful artist but I enjoy such a thing like photography, where I learned that a photo can be much more than a picture taken with an iPhone and adding some instagram edits. The area I have most excelled in, the athletics strand has allowed me to pursue my passion of sports in many different areas and allowed me to develop my skills and given me chances to display them in places all over the world. Needless to say, those four simple words have had a massive role in who and what I am today and for that I am very thankful. The achievement that I am most proud of, as cheesy as it may sound is honestly graduating. Graduating is something that you look forward too as a kid ever since you start school or see older siblings go through it, yet for some reason it is something that you feel is never going to come. Yet when it does it feels like it comes up incredibly unexpected and fast. I think that is because no one really wants to graduate they just enjoy the anticipation of it coming. Well that is not entirely true, I am excited to graduate. It is going to open up a whole new world to me that I have been waiting to enter for the past 13 years of my life. At the same time I am going to be leaving behind people and experiences that I will never get back when I walk out those doors, but I will never forget them. So with graduating, one thing I would change about high school would be to make people not look so forward to the future, but live in the present. While graduating is exciting and seems to be freedom, don't let your high school years go by wasted and not taking advantage of every opportunity that you have, because you will miss them when they are gone. The first 13 years of your life shape who you are and most likely who you will turn out to be in the future, so let them shape you the right way by doing everything you possibly can in those 13 years; im just thankful that I am lucky enough to say that Collingwood has given me the best 13 years of high school that I could ask for. So, as I leave I know that I have been well prepared to enter University life and beyond because of everything Collingwood has offered me. Yet, if I were to give you all one piece of advice it would be to do your grad transitions asap when they are due because it will come back and be a bitch (sorry for language) .... but yeah. Grad 2013 xoxo