The first time I walked off the school bus and unto the bus curve of MLEC, I had my headphones blasting in my ear trying to drown out the noises of the first day of school. I didn’t want to think about all of the strangers around me and the big buildings and the scary advanced classes that were coming my way. I was having nightmares the nights leading up to that day and these were never a good sign.

The nightmares were right. I hated my first year in MLEC. It was the hardest and worst year I’ve lived so far. I hated everyone and everything. I was convinced that my classes were some type of child torture created by Satan. I felt forced to take classes that I didn’t find useful and I thought were unnecessarily hard, even though I had chosen to apply to this school and be part of the rigorous Cambridge Academy.

I was mad at myself.

But I stuck it out and did my best. The first year torture finally ended and I came back for sophomore year determined to make everything better. After about two weeks into the year, I realized that what Ms. Evans told me the first day I had her class was true. All of the classes I took after hers were much easier. Sophomore year was already looking better. And to top it off, I was finally starting my journalism classes. It turned out to be my favorite year of high school.

I hate change.

These transitions had to be the biggest lesson I took from high school. I learned that sometimes I just have to force myself to go through things I don’t like in order to be better and to have a great outcome. Because of this, I forced myself to apply to internships, summer programs, and scholarships. I had to contact people that I didn’t want to talk to, I had to do interviews and write letters and tell stories. It wasn’t easy, but I grew to love it.

You see, what makes MLEC special, what makes Cambridge special, what makes journalism special, are the people. No matter where we go or what we do, I have never met people like this anywhere. Even through the overbearing workload, the slightly bitter teachers, the sometimes difficult administration, the students never fail to shine stronger than anything.

We don’t let anything or anyone slow us down. We are the ones that make this school worth coming to everyday. We are fun and stubborn and rebellious and nerdy and we do things that kids in other schools can’t fathom. I have loved everyone that I have met here; I have loved even the people that I have hated. Because even when we make each other want to pull our hairs out of our heads, we always stick by each other. He never leave one another alone. Not when we’re in trouble for not wearing uniform, not when the microphone in the auditorium stops working, not when we go through losses in the school. We are always together. We are one MLEC.

That is why it is going to be so hard to say goodbye this June. Because even after a horrid ninth grade year, and all of the scary and hard AP classes and the differences I’ve had to experience, come June, I won’t be part of the MLEC family anymore. I won’t be able to look to my right or my left and know that I have people next to me that will stick by me. It will be harder than anything else to say goodbye to my support system and to have to give up my spot in the school that has homed my craft for four years.

It will be hard to give up my name and occupation in the class of 2012.

For now all I can hope for is that I have made the same impact on the class as they have made on me. I hope that I have been able to help at least one person, touch one life, and that will be enough of a difference for me.

My 2012 class will always have a place in my heart, my mind, my being. I don’t know what I’ll do with the empty crevice that will be left when I have to say goodbye to my teachers, my classrooms, my confidants. I know that it will be difficult to find great people like those here in order to be sufficient enough to meet the high standards that MLEC has set on me.

Goodbye, my peers, my friends. My family.