A few weeks ago, I received the wonderful news that I will be attending North Carolina School of the Arts for my last year of high school (as a part of their theater acting program). I heard this news after a series of interviews, auditions and tours that started at the beginning of this year. It is, honestly, a bit disorienting to have fulfilled this dream. Maybe it’s due to the oddness of leaving the lives of so many people (which is what, I’m sure, a lot of seniors are struggling with); or to how unfamiliar I am with living on my own. I keep telling people it hasn’t “hit” me yet, and I think this is because I’ve never had an experience like this before, and I don’t yet know what I’ve gotten myself into. Well, let me explain: I do know what I have signed up for—an intense artistic and academic program, my first Shakespeare play, great dance experience, living a few hours away from home. What I don’t know is how it will all fit together—what my days will be like, how I will handle being away from my friends and family. And I think it is perfectly normal, too, not to know these things yet.
Because it’s currently hard for me to picture what my life will be like at NCSA next year, it’s hard for me to fully realize that I actually am leaving—and who I’m leaving. I am swiftly approaching my last ever days at Northwood High School and I still haven’t really said my goodbyes. This is something else I’m not really familiar with. I want to honor everyone I will miss in some meaningful and sincere way. But when I sense the time is right, I choke on my words. I can only hope that my friends/compañeros won’t remember me by the botched goodbye speeches I will surely try to make in the next few days, but by the things I said to them in the clearer time, before I knew I was going away. Even though I dream of perfect, last minute heart-to-hearts, I know that the real substance—the main events—in all of my friendships at Northwood have already passed away. This may be slightly sad, but it was all worth it. Everything.
– By Quinn Kerscher