“And to the graduating class of 2024, congratulations! You survived all 4 years of high school!” I hear chuckles around me and I smile to myself. The tears are threatening to spill. My eyes are already wet, my throat clogging up, waiting for the sobs to be released.

It should be happy, really. Yay! High school is over! Finally! All those years I’ve been forced to get up at 6AM to sit in a classroom for 6 hours is finally over. But…what now? I watch as my classmates I’ve watched grow up with me each take the stage, posing with their graduation certificates. I study their faces. Sure, I’ll see my friends again. We’ll text, call, hang out. It won’t be the same, we won’t see each other every single day, but we’ll see each other. It was my other classmates that I was staring at.

This day will be the last day I see these kids I’ve grown up with. The ones who make class not so boring, who made everyone laugh during lectures. The ones I’ve laughed with and talked to in class. The ones I’ve watched cry and move on with their friendships. Hell, even the crushes I’ve followed around and giggled at. The ones who have made fun of me, who had spread rumors. The ones who whispered answers to me in class. All these faces that I’ve grown so used to seeing every day, voices I constantly heard in my background, would simply…disappear. Just like that. In one day.

I hear my name called and I stand up from my seat, making my way across the aisle to take my certificate. My ticket out of here. Freedom! That’s what I’ve been wanting for years, to finally leave this place and have my own life. But now that the day is here, I…can’t. I can’t just leave this entire part of my life behind.

I hold my certificate and smile at the small flashes of light around me before maneuvering myself back to my seat. There’s speeches, gifts being given, awards and then suddenly it’s over. We make our way down the stage and the crowd of children, now graduates, merge to find their friends and family. I turn in a circle, looking for my friends but instead see all the faces that I’m so used to. That I recognize so well. The tear slides down my cheek. Then another. I keep looking and hear the voices of the people who have made me laugh, the voices I won’t hear again.

I keep looking and see the hallways I’ve ran through, laughing with my friends or rushing to class 5 minutes late. The hallways I could navigate with my eyes closed that I suddenly won’t come back to anymore.

I swallow hard and close my eyes to stop the stem of tears. When I open them I see my friends shoving their way through the crowd to me.

I smile and run over, pulling them into a hug.

“I’m gonna miss this,” I whisper. “I’m gonna miss school.”