As a sophomore, I've been encouraged to begin thinking about my life after college by, not only my parents, but teachers as well. I've changed what I wanted to be when I 'grow up' at least 83 times, and I haven't stopped yet.
While the pressure sets into the pick the best college with the best programs with tuition that I can afford in a city that I'll love, I'm being more set back on graduating than most kids my age.
My friends and fellow classmates can't wait to get out of their parents house. They say that they're sick and tired of getting grounded and not being able to do what they want, when they want. They say that they hate the city that we live in and that nothing will ever change that.
I have one thing to say.
I bet it will.
In only two and a half years, I'll have graduated from high school, class of 2010. I'll, hopefully, be living in Savannah, studying from SCAD, majoring in photography. I'll be sitting in my dorm room or apartment, reading my past Times articles and laughing along with how stupid I'm going to sound by the end of this one.
Writing that last paragraph made a realization hit me.
I don't have much time here left.
I only have two and a half years before I have to focus on the real world.
And that's just it.
The real world intimidates me.
It really, really does.
While I'm excited for the college experience and getting away from my family, I'll know I'll miss what I have now.
There are Tuesday trivia nights at Mellow Mushroom, Friday night football games in my school's huge football stadium and the movie theater that I know and love. There are the eight local ice cream shops and donut stores, sub shops, pizza shops and clothes stores. The constant rumors of Goody's going out of business while their hiring are still happening and I still know everything that happens at Bruster's whether I work there or not. Target is still hiring, as well as Starbucks, Block Buster and Subway. Hollywood Video is closing and all their movies are 25 percent off. I know the four building of my 'downtown' area: the jailhouse, the Bail Bonds place, the courthouse and Dairy Queen. I know people who would chain themselves to the door of Dairy Queen if someone mentioned knocking it down.
At the risk of sounding stupid or risky, I could probably walk around my city with a blindfold on and still find IHOP or Bruster's, Ulta or Target. I can walk around my house with my eyes closed without running into anything. I know almost everyone in my school of almost two thousand kids and I could get myself from my high school 20 minutes away and still find a way to beat the rush-hour traffic after school.
Truth is, if this city had a famous art school here, I would go to it. I don't ever want to leave. This is the place where I grew up; where I made all the friends I have now.
I've watched this city grow up alongside me. I was seven when I moved here, almost eight years ago. When I moved here, there was a Wal*Mart, a Hollywood Video and only a handful of restaurants. Now that I'm fifteen, we have all of that, plus more.
I've watched my friends come and go; I've watched houses go up and I've gone through the most painful experiences I could go through.
This is the city that had to endure me when my grandma died in seventh grade. This city is the one that had to deal with that crazy wreck my mom and I got into in eighth grade. This is the one that had to withstand all my crazy yelling, "I HATE YOU EXTREMEMLY INCONVENIENT FOOTBALL FIELD!" across the extremely inconvenient football field smack in the middle of my school, especially today, since the entire field was flooded and the sidewalk beside it was flooded with four inches of rain.
This is the place that has to deal with me on a regular basis, and it should get an award for dealing with me appropriately.
To wrap this up, I only have one thing to say.
While everyone in my first period World History class is complaining on how much they hate this city, I'll always be the one that will say "I love it."
- Kaila
