With the days of summer approaching, seniors are getting ready to move on. This isn’t the case for me, however. Due to my year spent as an exchange student in Germany, I must stay back a year to make up for my time lost in Europe. My credits did not count over there due to the different education system. I got to learn a new language and enjoy the exciting cuisines of foreign lands.

Europe was like paradise to me. The people over there were kind and friendly, and a lot of them reminded me of people here. I got to experience the culture, but with that came the price of not graduating with those I have grown up with.

To say it simply, it sort of sucks. Seeing my senior friends preparing to leave for college is not only heartbreaking, but hard to accept. The fact that the senior class happens to be made up of people, some I have known since preschool, is difficult. I do enjoy being a part of the junior class though. I’ve met a lot of great people, and it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be. It’s also thrilling because now I get to graduate with the 50-year anniversary of this school.

My year away was worth the five years of high school that I will go through. The upsides of everything are greater than the downsides. One of the funniest upsides? I’ll technically be a super senior.