The Wessex Wire
Senior Edition
The Student Newspaper of West Essex Regional High School
West Essex High School, 65 West Greenbrook Rd., North Caldwell, N.J.
Senior Edition 2018
Trading in one era for another
By Alyssa Cristobal
It doesn’t feel like I am graduating. It definitely hasn’t hit yet. People are going around reminiscing about past years and saying how weird it feels, but it doesn’t feel weird to me just yet. I assume graduation is when it will all hit—when the sweet memories of failing tests and late-night FaceTimes will all come flooding back—and hit me hard. People are freaking out about everything changing, but really, aren’t we just gearing up for more school? The only thing changing is our mindset. I guess now—during that transition—is the best time to stop and reflect on what I have
experienced for the past 12 years and how it’s all ending. Elementary school is a blur of snacktime and vocab tests. Middle school is angsty music and cheesy themed dances. High school is four years of upperclass hell. But they really were some of the best years of my life—some of the best memories made with some of the best people. I am indebted to everything high school has given me so far because it is really all I have known. Despite the grueling work and long hours, high school has made me the person I am today. So yeah, it is the end of an “era,” but it is the start of a new one too.
High school: finding yourself By Grace Irwin
When you’re young, you never listen to adults when they say “these are the best years of your life.” You just put in your headphones and ignore your parents until they walk out of the room because you know life is nothing like “The Breakfast Club” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” There is no football player waiting to kiss you in the rain and there isn’t some massive bully waiting to give you a swirly in the bathroom. Life is nothing like a hideously cliche movie you watch with your girlfriends. It’s just not. No one tells you how hard it is to be young—that the key to the “best times” is finding who you are. Entering freshman year, I was excited to move past the so-called “little kid” stage of life. I got caught up in the need to be popular, sur-
rounding myself with people I didn’t necessarily like or wasn’t really friends with. I got lost in the haze of popularity and the need to fit in. I’ve always had a core set of three best friends, and I love them to death, but I don’t think any of us had our priorities straight. It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year that I began to lift myself out of the hole I dug myself, realizing that I was the only one in control of my life; if I wanted things to change, only I could do something about it. I focused on my schoolwork and branched out of my normal circle. I made new friends and reconnected with old, those who I can confidently say now are my absolute best friends—each and every one of them. Years from now, when I think about my high school days, I won’t remember my struggling
math grades or the stress of Mr. Diliberto yelling, “Ten lates—no senior service!” in the morning. I’ll remember the late nights with people I didn’t speak to more than once only two years ago. I’ll remember publishing personal works of writing in the school magazine. I’ll remember trying out for four different sport teams just for fun. But most important, I’m going to remember how I grew into myself—how I let go of the scared little freshman I was. In only four short years, I gained the confidence to be myself completely and unapologetically. Graduation came almost too soon, but I am ready to move onto new adventures. West Essex offered me a place to learn and grow—four years I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my life.