I walk these halls, the echoes of five years whispering at my back,
Yet the gravity of it all—of leaving—hasn't quite settled in my bones.
The bell rings, one last time, its chime a distant pulse,
But my heart doesn't race or tremble in reply.
I'm neither thrilled nor anxious,
Just caught in a strange limbo between then and now,
Between what was and what will be.

There's a part of me that feels like a stranger in this place,
Though I've lived here, breathed here, and grown into myself here.
It's strange how I've never fully loved it,
Never fully belonged,
Yet here I stand, knowing I'll miss it all the same.
How do you miss something you never really loved?
But I will, won't I? I know I will.

I think of the faces that have come and gone,
The friends I’ve held close and those who drifted away,
Like leaves on a wind I couldn’t control.
There were days I laughed until I cried,
And others when I just cried.
I remember the battles fought with myself in the silence of my mind,
The self-doubt, the fear of never being enough,
The aching need to fit in, to stand out, to be seen—
And the quiet acceptance that sometimes,
Blending in was easier than shining out.

We were a class of misfits and rebels, of the overlooked and underestimated.
Not the best, not the brightest, but we were something, weren’t we?
Our own brand of madness, of brilliance, of beauty,
Hidden beneath the layers of who we were expected to be.
I hated some of them, maybe still do,
But there’s this soft spot in my heart for them too,
For all the shared secrets, the inside jokes, the chaos we called ours.
They made this journey worthwhile—
Their laughter, their kindness, their ridiculous, infuriating selves.

Memories flash like snapshots in a fading light—
The classroom that felt like a cage some days,
And like home on others,
The teachers who saw through us,
And those who never did,
The moments of sheer joy, the heartaches,
The regrets—so many regrets.

But would I change a thing if I could?
Would I rewrite the story if given the chance?
I wonder, sometimes, if different choices
Would have led me somewhere better,
Or just somewhere else.
But in the end, does it matter?
This was my path, our path, and we walked it together.

I look around at these faces, these people,
And I see it now—how they’ve shaped me,
How they’ve held me up, knocked me down,
And pulled me through.
There’s love here, in all the strangest places,
Even in the moments of hurt and frustration,
In the fights and the laughter,
In the silent understanding that this is who we are—
Imperfect, flawed, but undeniably connected.

As I stand on the edge of tomorrow,
I’m not afraid of what’s to come.
The future feels vast and unknowable,
But it doesn’t scare me, not really.
It’s not the unknown that haunts me,
But the thought of leaving this behind—
This messy, beautiful chapter of my life.

I’m ready for what’s next, I think,
Not because I have all the answers,
But because I’ve learned to trust the journey,
To embrace the uncertainty, to carry the weight of leaving
And the grace of staying, all at once.
And as I step forward, I carry them with me—
The memories, the friendships, the love and the loss,
The knowledge that we were here, that we mattered.

I’m grateful, deeply so, for this class, these people,
For the way we stumbled and soared together.
I thank God, or fate, or whatever force brought us together,
Because we were exactly what each other needed,
Even if we didn’t know it at the time.

So here’s to us, to what we were and what we’ll become,
To the best class I never thought I’d miss,
To the people who filled these years with meaning.
We made it—together, through it all,
And now, with a heart full of memories,
I walk into tomorrow, knowing I’ll be okay.
Because I’ve been part of something real, something lasting,
And that’s more than enough for me.