To My High School Senior

The world has certainly thrown us for a loop these last few weeks. I thought I was going to buy the local grocery store out of Kleenex getting you ready for your last cheer game, senior prom, and other senior activities that usually take place during this time of year. Instead, now I am just praying you get to experience them, as your senior year is looking a lot different than I thought it would. If anything, the recent events have certainly taught us both that the saying is true: “We make plans, and God laughs.”

In the midst of everything, there are some things I hope you take with you as you start to embark on the closing of one chapter (high school) and the beginning of another (hello, adulthood).

I want you to remember how proud your family and I are of you, and how you have taken the world by storm over the last four years. I have seen you grow from a young teenager who was unsure of herself to a young woman who stands up for herself! Do you know how long that life lesson usually takes to be learned? I think I am still working on it, but I am learning from you! You are helping me to start standing up for myself, and I thank you so much! Just because our thoughts and beliefs don’t match the masses, it doesn’t mean that we are in the wrong or that our thoughts, opinions, and/or feelings don’t matter. We need to be true to ourselves, and that is exactly what you are showing me. You are being true to you, and I am so proud of you! Please remember that.

I also want you to remind you that while high school is certainly a chapter in your “Book of Life,” those four years are not going to be the best years of your life. Yes, they will be some great years to look back on, but you have so much more life ahead of you! I just don’t want you to think because your high school years are ending that this is it, that there is nothing more. There is so much more!

While you might feel as though your life is ending, it really is just beginning, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you! And when you take your last steps out of your high school life and enter the “new world,” know that your family is here to love and support you every step of the way! While it is certainly time for you to go out there and fly, you will always have a place to land here with us!

Yes, your senior year might end up looking a lot different than we both had hoped, but no matter what happens or how your high school chapter closes, I want you to remember that when life hands you lemons, it is up to you to make some amazing lemonade, and I just know that you will!

How are you handling the recent events as they pertain to your high school senior? Leave a comment below on how we can all work together to help give our seniors the closure they need when it comes to their high school career ending.