 |
| Special thanks to JCarey Photography for this shot. |
I’m still taking photos, but this is the first and last article I will write all year. Yet, it’s the article I’ve waited to write for seven years…my senior editorial.
I can distinctly remember reading the senior editions of the school newspaper so many times and thinking, “one day that will be my article. I’ll be a senior and it will be my turn.”
Now I am faced with the terrifying task of writing the article I have spent years thinking about. How do I begin? Quite frankly, I am lost.
How do I put into words the blessing that GPA has been to me?
This school has been not only a place of learning, but also a family, a support group, a place to rest, and most certainly a place where I could belong.
People know me as the “camera kid”. I always have a camera at the ready, and I haven’t missed many events here, as a result of that. So for a while I thought I would do a photo essay for my senior editorial. I could take some of my best shots and let them tell the story of my history and my memories at Grace Prep.
It is hard to pinpoint specific memories of events that I have shot though. They all blur together really. However, I can specifically remember my first time on the sidelines at a football game with a camera.
I felt as though nothing and no one could touch me, that is, until the Southwest Christian coach accused me of telling our coaches the plays they were calling.
Over the years, my awe of carrying a camera faded, however, my love for capturing memories did not.
My pictures would do a much better job than I would at describing my time here, but then I decided even that is not enough. I don’t think I can describe what I have gained from Grace Prep. I think that it is something you have to experience for yourself to understand.
Graduation is bittersweet really. How will I forget the memories from this school? How can I leave it? After all, my past was made here.
I used to be this crazy little girl who would spend her summers playing hide and seek in the shelves up stairs; The girl who fervently would search the library for a new read, or painfully suffer through the blue screen of death (the computers liked to freeze back when we were out in the portables).
Now I am this senior getting ready to graduate who finds my references for job interviews and college in this building.
Grace Prep is in my blood and has made up my story.
At the same time, if I do not leave, then my past means nothing, my history and my memories remain just that and they do not lead up to the future I have been preparing for. I have earned this day with all my projects and papers, with all my exams, quizzes and all-night homework assignments.
Walking the stage is sweet.
Leaving this comfy family is scary.
We always hear the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11. I’m sure you know it. It’s the verse that says God knows the plans he has for you and that they are for your good not for your harm.
I think we hear that more and more as we near graduation, but it has hit me that we take that verse out of context. It means in the end, the plans work out for our good not that we never face hardship or trials.
Talk to anyone who has been here for a few years. I doubt any of them will tell you that everything is always roses and daisies here. In fact, our school does not have the most glamorous history.
However, no one can deny that the heart of this school is to draw students to the Kingdom of God. Leaving that and going into the real world is one of the most terrifying tasks I have ever faced, but at the same time, I am filled to the brink with joy as I anticipate creating my next chapter.
No comments:
Post a Comment