Many people see high school as the best four years of your life, but what happens if you complete it in three? I chose this non-traditional approach and it is not easy at all. There are many hardships I’ve had to face and we’re only a few months into “my senior” year.

First off, I’m sure some of you are wondering how I did it. How did I, just a regular girl with average grades, skip a grade? Well, last year, which was officially my sophomore year, I turned in a request form to my counselor which had to include a parent signature and a letter stating reasons justifying why I wanted to graduate a year early. However, that was not the end of the process. After I submitted my forms to my counselor, she had to turn it in to Ms. Dixon. After a few weeks of waiting for Ms. Dixon to approve or deny my request, I finally got called down to the counseling office. Sitting nervously in my counselor’s office, I awaited the results. Me, being a pessimist, I expected her to say that I had to complete the next two years of high school as usual and graduate with my class, 2015. Luckily for me, I was pleasantly surprised.

She sat me down and right off the bat, she told me that I was going to be able to graduate early. I was absolutely ecstatic. Then we began speaking logistics. I found out I was going to have to dedicate almost my whole entire summer to taking English 11, so I could begin the next school year as a senior. It wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my summer, but I knew it was what I had to do.

Coming into school on the first day was exciting, yet nerve racking. Reporting to my home room was difficult for me. I had a mixture of nervousness and butterflies fluttering in my stomach. I knew people would be confused and I knew the questions were going to be flooding into my ears. I tried my hardest to avoid telling people about graduating early, but I knew that it was just a matter of time before everyone knew. Sitting down, everyone looked at me with puzzled expressions. “Why are you here?” “You’re not a senior.” “Are you in the wrong place?” The questions came in from every direction and I didn’t feel wanted, I felt attacked. People let up a little and let me explain and before I knew it, everyone was asking me about which grade I was in.

At first it was weird to consider myself a senior. When Senior Unity Day rolled around, I felt like a complete outsider. After that day though, things began to get better. People started including me in their daily lives. I no longer felt like an outsider; I was a true senior.

Looking back, when I initially made the decision, I was beyond ecstatic to graduate early. However, when school started, I started regretting my decision. The constant attention and all the questions really got to me and I wished I could turn back. As of today though, I am content with my decision. Things have settled down and now I am happy with my social life and my school life. Being a senior is not as difficult as I imagined it would be. I’ve come to see that things really do get better.