Senior night helps to realize how much Stagg shaped the person

Life is about moments. The moments that move us one step closer to our futures. The moments that mean something to us: the moments we remember.

 I didn’t realize I was having a moment on Thursday, Oct. 25. Not when I walked into the gym and saw the posters on the wall. Not as I changed into my uniform for the last time. Not  when we ran through the tunnel as the music began to play. And not even as we warmed up, sizing up our opponents. It was just another Thursday home game in my mind.

 We finished warming up and the music turned off. I lined up with my family and waited for my name to be called. I watched fellow senior teammates walk before me and receive their flowers as the crowd cheered. Everyone was all smiles.

 When my name was called my smile matched everyone else’s. That’s when it hit me that I was having a moment. It hit me even harder as I hugged the man who had been my coach for four years; hit me hardest when I saw the tears in his eyes.

In my mind, it was no longer just a Thursday. It was my senior night. I was about to play in my last volleyball game at Stagg. For three years I had watched seniors before me receive their flowers and say goodbye. I didn’t realize that my time to say goodbye would come so quickly. I didn’t realize that playing volleyball had become a part of me, a part that defined who I was as a Stagg student.

That’s when I began to realize that soon enough my time at Stagg would be over. That things that made me who I’ve become in the past four years would soon be stripped away. And I would be left with only the person I’ve become. And with that I would begin again: start over in the next stage of my life.

Change is terrifying and lots of people avoid it. Life becomes a comfortable routine. I could easily cower away and try to keep things the same, but then I wouldn’t be accepting life’s natural course.

As sad as it is to realize that my time in high school is coming to an end, it’s pretty amazing to think that there are still so many more moments I have yet to experience. The moments that I’ve had in high school have made me the person I am now and those moments will always be remembered.

My senior night is over. It was a moment on Thursday, Oct. 25, but now it’s a memory. I have the rest of my senior year to experience more moments. And then after that high school will be behind me and I’ll start over in college.

I turned in my jersey. I said goodbye to my teammates and coaches. I walked out of the gym. I had had a moment, but now it’s a memory. And I’m moving on toward making more moments that will make my life memorable.