Coming out of junior year, I was planning on being headache free for senior year. My school had changed the possible English classes for seniors, and combined with that situation and my wishes to do AP biology and AP calculus, I ended up signing up for three AP classes senior year. I needed to be headache free to succeed in all my classes, especially the ones (like History and AP English) that I don't enjoy learning about. The medicine (that made me lose weight) took two months to come off of, so I wasn't off of that medicine until July. With school starting in early August, I had about a month to regroup for senior year. I still expected a carefree senior year, despite the evidence leaning towards a stressful one.
I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but I was a part of the marching band all four years of high school. The marching season happens from late July to mid November, with practices at least two to three times a week. To those of you thinking that a marching band practice consists of playing music and marching in a straight line for like two hours, you have clearly never experienced marching band. I am not condemning you for not knowing the truth, but from now on, you will consider marching band a sport. The season starts off with not mandatory practices for three hours every Tuesday during the summer. Two weeks before school starts, band camp begins. Band camp. Notorious for hot days and crazy stories I cannot share because "what happens at band camp stays at band camp." What I can share is how crazy band camp is. From Monday through Saturday, we had daily practices from 9 AM to 9 PM (lunch breaks for an hour, dinner for one and a half). Saturday ends with a performance for friends and family, by which point the band has memorized the music and marching movements (drill) to about two minutes of our fall show. Not to brag, but I did all this with a headache every day. Needless to say, the next week I was completely exhausted.
From August to November, we had practice on Tuesdays from 5pm-9pm, Thursdays from 2:30-4:30, Fridays from 3-9, and October-November, we also had a competition every Saturday. This alone would be a lot. Add on three AP classes, church activities, family, and friends, and you get one busy life. I would have been exhausted even without the headaches. On a normal day, having a bad headache is energy draining. By the end of the marching season, I was behind in almost every single one of my classes. I am not sharing this part to say "hey look how awesome I am for doing all this!" I am sharing to say that I failed but succeeded. And giving up because you fail will get you nowhere in life. I failed many times. I missed many practices and school days, didn't practice enough, dropped out of AP biology, and had no social life. I also succeeded many times. I survived the band season as the band council president, eventually caught up in my classes, pushed myself to and beyond my limits, and in the end, it all worked out.
Some people see high school as the best years of their lives. I expected to be one of these people. Now looking back, I hope these past years will be the worst of my life, not the best. For those of you still in high school and struggling in one way or another, don't give up. At the time, high school is everything. But high school is just a fraction of your life. The most important thing about high school is the growth in character each person goes through. Some people grow to become their best self, others become their worst. Either way, you have the rest of your life to screw up or turn your life around and succeed. Choose to become a person you can be proud of, and you will never regret it, no matter the circumstances that come your way. Always keep in mind that God loves you *in Bruno Mars's voice* "just the way you are."
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9
Love always,
Sierra
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