Saturday, May 27, 2006

Hello! Yesterday was our senior class trip to Great America, which was a wonderful break from the end-of-the-year stress that has been buzzing around my ears for weeks now. It was easily the best day I've had in a long time; I was able to spend all of it with five of my closest friends, riding roller coasters and eating overpriced slushies and churros. As an added bonus, for the first time in possibly my entire life, I spent roughly eight hours in the sun and did not get sunburned. Hooray for SPF 30!! It was a pain to keep reapplying it all day, but such are the necessary evils for those of us with paper-white skin. I've just about made peace with the fact that I'm never, ever going to be tan. Oh well. Skin cancer is lame.

Staring out the bus window on the way home reminded me of just how much I love the way late afternoon melts into early evening, when the sun sinks low in the sky and violet-colored shadows are cast over the surface of the world. It was a little bit symbolic and a little bit sombering, because during those brief, suspended moments I realized that those moments were likely the very last moments I would ever spend surrounded by the people from my graduating class, save for those we'll be sharing on graduation day. I've been avoiding talking about it much, or writing about it much more, because I think I'm afraid that if I do so, it will end up feeling much more real than I want it to. It's far easier to push those troubling thoughts away and turn to join an amusing conversation that's just been started a few feet away, refusing to dwell on what is perceived as a loss and trying, instead, to maximize the potential gain of th e final days of high school.

I can't believe graduation is only four school days away. It doesn't feel that close. Where did the past 18 years go?