When I first walked into North High as a freshman, I was convinced I had the worst schedule possible.

None of my friends were in my classes, and I remember thinking the year was already off to a terrible start. Looking back, that may have been one of the best things that could have happened to me. By keeping an open mind, I met some of the best people I’ve ever known. Many of the friendships I made that year are still some of my closest friendships today.

If high school taught me anything, it’s that some of the things you dread the most end up becoming some of your favorite memories.

For most of high school, I was always looking ahead. I was worried about the next test, the next grade, the next game, the next season, or the next milestone. Looking back, I wish I had spent a little less time worrying about perfect grades and a little more time appreciating the people around me. The grades mattered, but some of the time I could have spent with family and friends is time I’ll never get back.

If I could give underclassmen one piece of advice, it would be this: don’t wait until your senior year to realize that everything eventually comes to an end.

One day, you’ll sit where I am now and wonder where the time went.

Some of the moments I miss most come from sports.

There were countless afternoons when my teammates and I sat on a bus stuck in traffic, impatiently waiting to get to our game. There were practices where all I could think about was getting home. At the time, those moments felt dreadful, but now I’d do anything to relive them.

I cherished the bus rides home filled with laughter and stories from the game. I remember one night when it got so late after a win that we ordered pizza and ate it together as a celebratory dinner. I remember a soccer game played in pouring rain that somehow turned into mud sliding after the game. At the time, those moments felt ordinary. Looking back, they were the moments that mattered most.

Some of my favorite memories came from the team dinners at the end of each season. There was always something bittersweet about them. After months of practices, games, bus rides, and inside jokes, it felt like everyone had finally become close just as the season was ending. At the time, I was already looking ahead to the next season, the next game, or the next thing on my schedule. Now I realize those dinners were a reminder to slow down and appreciate the people around me before the moment was gone.

Because it was never really about the games themselves. It was about the teammates who became family, the memories we created together, and the feeling that we’d always have another season ahead of us.

Now, I’d do anything to step back onto the pitch, the court, or the field one more time.

When most people think about high school, they think about prom, Spirit Week, Pep Rally, or Battle of the Classes. Although they were all amazing experiences, the highlights were never the events themselves.

The highlights were the people.

They were the friends standing next to you during those events. They were the places you went afterward. They were the conversations during class after the teacher had already told you for the third time to stop talking. They were the familiar faces you passed in the hallways every day and the quick conversations with people from every grade that somehow became part of your routine. They were the teachers I never even had as a student but still got to know through a simple hello in the hallway or a conversation before school. They were the lunch periods that somehow felt too short and the afternoons that you never wanted to end.

Those are the moments that stay with you.

As I leave North High, I realize that the moments I’ll miss most aren’t the ones that filled the yearbook pages. They’re the moments that seemed insignificant at the time: the quick conversations in the hallway, the inside jokes that made an ordinary day memorable, the familiar faces I’d pass without thinking twice, and the simple comfort of knowing exactly where I belonged. Those are the moments that quietly became part of my everyday life, and those are the moments I’ll miss the most.

Because now I know those moments weren’t ordinary at all.

The things I’ll miss most aren’t the moments everyone remembers. They’re the moments nobody thought to take a picture of.