Unfortunately for me, one of the best lessons that I learned while in high school came during the second semester of my senior year. Even as a kid, I was always pretty nervous. Then came freshman year, and I started to find that everything I did stressed me out in some way or another. As you might imagine, this tended to get worse as I continued high school, taking harder classes, increasing my workload, and, worst of all, applying to college. I got that feeling of chronic worry, and it plagued much of my high school experience. It was the kind of worry that would sit in the back of my head at all times, regardless of what I was doing, making me feel like I had lost control of my own mind. Something about this semester of senior year, though, seems to have flipped a switch or re-wired the metaphorical circuit. I’m not sure if it was something that I did consciously, but for the first time in what felt like forever, I could feel myself coexisting with the worries, living a life beyond whatever happened to be stressing me out. Maybe it was the activities I was throwing myself into—going to senior nights for my friends, ditch day, planning for college—or the general air that my future, once an unsettling mystery, was finally starting to take shape. Thoughts that used to loom over me no longer seem so scary, and, pardon the cliche, I feel like I can take a deep breath again. To anyone reading who currently feels like I once did—we can both recognize that there will always be things that worry us, but I hope you can recognize that, in the end, nothing is as big as it may seem. High school really does fly by quickly, and there are so many opportunities that can be easy to miss, especially considering how much pressure is put on students these days. Try to slow down every once in a while, and take your time during the fun parts. New Trier has a lot of great experiences to offer—enjoy them!