"Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that."

Matched - Ally Condie

When I look back on the past year, it's scary to think how much happened. How much we survived. How much a person can grow in one year, both emotionally and physically. During our final assembly as year twelves we had a PowerPoint presentation where we reenacted photos from our past and it's really weird to think that I've seen a whole bunch of girls grow up. 

We've been together through thick and thin and we aren't the girls in in the original photos, and I don't mean because braces have been removed and fringes have grown out. I mean that we have grown emotionally and that we have matured into young women. Yes, I know it's been said a million times but we really have grown from girls to women and no matter how many times I'm told it never seems to set in. 

I don't know about everyone else but I cannot stop thinking about how much we've grown up, and you know I'm really sorry for the nostalgic nature of my posts lately but I have had so many questions floating around my head all week, and it really hit me when on Sunday when I realised that Saturday night was my last High School Party. 

As I don't drink I do a lot of thinking at parties, which is a weird thought, but it's true. While your friend mumbles incoherently next to you, you begin to question your own decisions and question if you made the right choice. At this particular party someone said to me that it's rare you find people our age who don't drink, this thus added to the million other thoughts that were pouring through my head that night. Is it that weird that people don't drink? Is drinking all it's cracked up to be? Why do people drink? 

So whilst pondering the very nature of the teenage experience I began to think that most of the people at this party, I had known since I was eleven years old. Six years of my life has led up to this moment. The moment where I'm sitting by the fire, chiming in and out of conversation and watching the girls who I've known for a decent amount of my life party and have fun. 

You know, I really do love parties where you forget about everything for the night, but after that particular party all I could think of is how times have changed. Half the people here will go to university next year or shoot off and travel the globe. Someone might become famous, someone might save the world and hopefully, we'll all live our dreams. I know it's cliche but how cool would it be if everyone got to live their dreams and do what they always wanted to do. 

It's scary to think how different your life could be if your parents had another dream that they weren't able to fulfil. Is even scarier to think that one stage our parents were this age, they were looking around at parties and thinking how much their friends have grown up. 

This year a lot of things have happened in regard to friendships, both new and old. If any of my friends are reading this I just want you to know that I am so incredibly proud of how much you've grown over the past six years. Especially this year, I have noticed more and more ways that the people around me have changed and the wonderful things that they have done. 

At the start of this year one of my friends who I have only ever heard sing in the shower (long story) sung in front of the whole entire school. She sung with the voice of an angel and I could not be prouder of her courage, grace and beauty. She is so very talented and I cannot believe that one of my friends had such a beautiful voice inside of her. When she stepped out on that stage we joined hands and held our breath, overwhelmed with a feeling of pride (and shock), knowing that the person singing up there was our friend. The girl who I did debating with in year seven and the girl who I know I can rely on for anything. To be real with you, I would honestly kill for an EP or an album with her name on the front, but hey, watch this space because I will be promoting the hell out of her and her music, because I know that big things are going to come her way. 

On our graduation day whilst I waited for my name to be called I could hear the names of the girls I have known for six years and the wonderful things that they have achieved and though some may have been sitting in the audience, jealous of what others have done, I was more in awe. I was in awe over the fact that a lot of these people have had terrible things happen to them, and if they could graduate high school, through everything that has happened to them then I think that I'll be just fine.

To anyone who has absolutely no idea what I'm talking about in this post, I'm sorry for wasting your time but I cannot stop thinking about the overwhelming sense of pride that I feel for my friends and the things they have achieved. 

To my friends I just want you to know how unbelievably and indescribably proud I am of you, sorry I keep saying it, but I can't stop. You've all grown so much into the beautiful people who I've come to know and love. Every single one of you has matured and you inspire me everyday to be better than I am and work harder than what I do. 

To my fellow year twelves, who I may not know as well as my close friends, I just want to congratulate you as well on everything that we have achieved this year, not only as individuals but as a grade. 

Congratulations class of 2014 we did it. 

♡♡♡

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