It all begins with sophomore year.

Standing outside my house taking first day back to school photos with my mom and then getting onto the wrong bus, which lucky still took me to PHS.

I was pretty nervous walking off that bus, new faces all around as I tried to find my friends. I couldn’t believe that I was finally here at Puyallup High School; the school that our middle school teachers were preparing us for. I couldn’t help but think that my final school years were slowly coming to an end, in three years I would be graduating.

And now that time has finally arrived, with a few days left until I’m finally out of this school. Thinking back at my time here at PHS, I have to say, senior year was the best year out of all of them. From the final classes I took, to the clubs I joined, and the new people I met that I am proud to be able to call my friends.

It was an honor being able to be a part of the Viking Student Media team for my last year. At the start of senior year, I was nervous about what yearbook would bring, I would talk about it with my therapist before the year even started, questioning if I should stay in the class or drop out, it brought me so much anxiety. I decided to stay, see what yearbook was all about, and I’m so glad I did. This class is the class that I look forward to every day, even though the stress of getting things done on time, it brought the best memories.

Not only did it bring the best memories, but it also brought the best people. I met Wilbur and Ruby on the first day of school when we got put into small groups in yearbook, we bonded over things we enjoyed, and our friendship hit off instantly. I later met Eugenia when we both signed up to take pictures at a tennis game; we bonded over it, being our first time taking pictures and giving tips and tricks on what to do. We continued to talk afterwards, continued to take pictures together and that’s when our friendship started. And then we have Aiden, he was the guy I always went to when I had questions or needed help with anything. Around second semester we changed seats to be closer together, we had each other.

I even joined D&D club with my friends who were already in the club. I tried joining last year but personal stuff got in the way, so I was happy I was able to participate with them this year. I enjoyed being able to laugh and have fun with my friends outside of school. My favorite memory was being the gnome that sat on my friend’s shoulders and getting thrown as a projectile weapon at enemies, and sometimes just at a wall. I also enjoyed my pet rat Timothy, he didn’t do much, just sit on my shoulder, I even had a bag of tricks that was full of rats so when he died, I would just reach into the bag and pull out a new rat and pretend like nothing happened.

Overall, I enjoyed my senior year and if I had a chance, I would do it all over again from the start. To all the new sophomores, juniors, and seniors here’s some advice, high school goes by quickly, so enjoy the time you have here. Join things you never thought you would join in the past, get into clubs or even sports, make new friends but also keep the old ones too, go get out of your comfort zone, find your community, it will be worth it.