Last modified: Friday, June 5, 2009 1:23 AM EDT An aerial view of Attleboro High School, taken in 2007. (Staff photo by Tom Maguire) Farewell AHS, hello ... what? BY JENNA GIUFFRIDA ATTLEBORO HIGH SCHOOL So this is it. High school is over. What now? I think I've asked myself that at least six times today, the first official day of my last summer before college. And even though I know I should be planning ahead, getting ready for graduation, instead I am bogged down by the passing of an era. I have spent the last four years living my life in the same building in the same way every day, and now I am expected to drop that and start over somewhere new with new responsibilities and no familiar patterns to lean back on. From here on out, it's uncharted territory; I don't know if I'm ready for it. I feel like I'm still 14 and starting my freshman year at good old (though it too was once new and unfamiliar) Attleboro High School. To be perfectly honest, however, I don't even know that girl anymore. She and I are so many miles apart we could fit an ocean between us. Fourteen-year-old me couldn't imagine such a thing as college and certainly couldn't be bothered to think about a career. She was just trying to survive the shark pit of AHS and bring up that C in Algebra (I never did, by the way). She had her friends, and I have mine. Things are very different now. Looking back, certain events and moments stand out, as if they are snapshots in my own personal yearbook. I can remember my first high school crush and all of the idiotic things I said to him; my first audition for the Drama Club and how delighted I was to have actually scored a part, no matter how small. I remember hanging out with friends, two of whom have stuck with me through everything; and the first real party I was ever invited to. There were bad things, too. There were the mundane jabs of everyday life and of course the lunch room. I got my heart broken several times, lost more than a few friends, and experienced the tragedy of death felt by the whole of my class. As much as I would like to forget some of these, I will carry them with me just as far as I will carry the good memories; and all of it has made me the girl who is writing this article. As a senior, I had a lead in the fall play and wrote my own show for the spring. I was an editor for Journalism, and during that time decided it was what I wanted to do with my life. I rang in the New Year with some of the best friends I have, and dyed my hair several times. I can't help but feel that this year I breathed in, breathed out and it was gone. I know this summer will be the same way. I have a few plans and I'm still undertaking the valiant (and foolhardy) task of looking for a job, but I can't help but dread the passing of the few months that lie between me and Wheaton College. I have a nephew starting high school next year, and a couple nieces soon after, so I offer some advice to them: Do your homework. I know it's a drag, and there are infinitely more and better things to do, but every bad grade I've ever gotten was because I blew off my homework. Procrastination is not your friend. It lives in close quarters with me and I know first hand how difficult it can make life. Make good friends and keep them. You don't have to be the most popular kid in school to be happy or have fun. In slight contradiction to number one, don't kill yourself over school. B's are just fine, thank you very much. Take high levels in subjects you're good at, but don't overextend yourself. I've had many B's and even a few worse grades and I'm still going to the college of my choice. No need to be perfect. Believe me, it's not worth it. High school is a place and a time and a state of mind I will always remember. As a teenager each problem is the end of the world, and each triumph the best of it. Punishment and reward are swift and judgment is never far around the corner. It's a time of cause and effect, with very little thinking in between. Almost nothing goes unnoticed. I'm not sure I'll miss it, per se. I hope that the alternate world of adulthood (not the real world, because high school is a real world, too. It just has different rules and is a little more temporary) will keep me satisfied enough that I don't have to wish to return to the angst-ridden halls of my teenage years. So this is it. High school is over. What now? I guess I'll just figure it out as I go along.