“Isn’t it funny day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different…” C.S Lewis
I began junior year excited, waiting in anticipation to begin a whole new year of classes and to see my friends again. I didn’t know what junior year held, yet I felt inspired and ready. I wasn’t quite a senior yet, but I was no longer an underclassmen. Almost everyone could drive, and it was going to be a fun year.
I excepted a simple year. A year filled with the same friends. A year filled with the same long days of school. A year filled with the same old high school drama.
However, I learned much more about myself this year than I thought. I learned what it means to not have your successes define who you are.
Junior Year is the year for high school. You begin taking loads of APs, start touring colleges, carefully scrutinizing your GPA, and pretty much just overloaded with all things school. Because of this, it seems only those things define who you are. It is what grades you make, what your ACT score is, whether you got above a 1200 on the SAT, etc. etc. It seems that these are the only things that matter at the time and nothing else is really important.
this is so so so so wrong.
I remember entering Junior year with high expectations for all my classes. I planned to get all As (including As in all my APs), easily scoring high on the ACT and SAT since it seemed to be what had happened with all my friends, and pretty much just cruising through the school year. Boy was I wrong. People forget to tell you that junior year isn’t just a year of school work. Its the first year where Ive seen myself and others finally figure out who we are. I began to see where my relationship with God was, where my relationships with friends were, and where my relationship with myself was. Its a year of highs and lows because no one is perfect and just about everyone is trying to discover themselves. It is SO MUCH to juggle all at once. You simply cannot succeed in sports, in friends, in schoolwork, in your youth groups, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. On the other hand, no one seems to want to tell you this. Teachers expect your very best, coaches expect your very best, and even parents expect your very best. But guess what? I wasn’t always my very best. I failed sometimes. I played awful during some sports games, I failed some AP tests, I didn’t make a perfect standardize testing score. But listen to me. That. Is. Okay.
As I reflect on junior year (as I am now a Senior !!) this is what I learned: I learned that I am not my failures. I am not my successes. I am not perfect. It is simply impossible. I realized we can’t all be perfect but that is okay because God still covers us with his unrelenting love. He already has a perfect plan for my life. How could that get any better? To all of you guys reading this who may be entering Junior year, I am praying for you. Work hard. Love God. Lean on each-other. If you do those things, I promise you that you will have the best year yet. Good Luck.
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