Senior Reflection: Kelsea

By Kelsea Dizon

Looking back on freshman year first semester to senior year second semester, I can confidently say that I would not trade my high school experience for any other. Like most of us, I’ve had a lot of the same classmates since either middle school, elementary school, or even since preschool (Primary Plus!). Knowing a lot of my current friends and acquaintances for about four to fifteen years, I would say that we have developed a community over time. Moreover, a majority of my closest friends now are people I knew in middle school, but were never that close; high school helped break out my shell and gain confidence.

Some of my favorite memories were at Westmont, both significant and casual: winning the soccer league junior year, team bondings, going to study halls with friends, all the rallies, or spontaneous plans made in the parking lot during off periods. Moreover, some of my teachers definitely shaped my high school experience for the better; they not only taught me the curriculum, but also compassion, grit, determination, kindness, and composure.

Even though I overwhelmed myself a lot over the last four years, adding more and more to my busy schedule, I met some great people by doing so, and honestly I don’t regret it. If I were to advise incoming freshmen, or even to any students who don’t feel connected to the Westmont community, I’d say to just try and break out of your comfort zone by getting involved or embarking on your interests. For one, this is high school. The reality is that once you graduate, you are entering the real world where no one is going to remember that one embarrassing incident that happened during freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior year. To me, high school is like a practice run where you decide what attributes to keep and what attributes to drop based on success and failure; however, that’s not exactly a negative because you can better yourself now and take what you have learned into college, into the workforce, and into life. High school is basically just a trial and error period where your mistakes do not define you later in life. So be spontaneous (obviously within some limits) and make the most of high school now because you never get these four years back.