I could be sentimental or emotional. I could say how much this year and all my high school years have meant to me, but I’m not going to. I’m going to tell you straight up how excited I am to be moving on, because that’s how I wrote most of my articles this year and that’s how I got on the National Edition on the My High School Journalism web site. I told you straight up how I felt about Juvenile and Scary Movie 4. Most of all, this year has been hard. Despite all the promises I made to myself to enjoy this year and not get stressed about anything, I seem to have spent more time doing the opposite. While trying to enjoy the year and spend as much time with friends as possible, I began to procrastinate on homework even more than usual. As I write this, it is already four days late and whether this is finished or not, layout starts in less than half an hour. Not doing homework until the last minute isn’t really a problem, but the late nights it causes can be. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the most fun person to be around when I haven’t had a full night’s sleep, and I apologize now to those who had to put up with a grumpy me this year. Even on nights when I did get sleep, some of my classes this year were just hard. I didn’t used to be the type of student who had to study for more than an hour for any test. But this year was different. I found myself working harder, studying longer, and still not being as prepared as I wanted to be. My advice: keep up the hard work because eventually it will pay off. Despite the work and stress, I’ll be graduating with grades that I can say I am proud of. Now that I’m done complaining, I will say that I have had fun these past four years. Being around students your age all day is fun, and as diverse as our school is, it’s safe to say school days are at least entertaining. But now that it’s over, I can’t wait to move on. Although I’m not leaving Iowa or even Ames, I’m still more excited about the college experience than anything before in my life. High school may have been preparation for college, but college is preparation for life. I can’t wait to study things that I want to learn about, live on my own, and begin my adult life.