Forever Young
Forever Young.
I lounge on the chair whilst viewing the party that has been going on for the past two hours. The last time we’re all going to be together as one big group. The last time we’re all going chill out and gossip. The last time I’m going to see the people that I’ve known since Primary school and have grown up with. It feels so…final.
I’ve always been told that you make your real true friends when you enter University. When you have your chance to finally express your true self, but I disagree. I think you can make your friends anywhere, at any age. It just depends on how you and your friend maintain that relationship and if you have the power to make it work. The crap that we all got up to when we entered school as immature, nervous kids is going to stay with me for a very long time because me and my friends have that firmly planted in our brains. No-one can take the memories away from me. It was then, really, that we all really found out about ourselves as we progressed through the years. When we first entered school we were timid and small, like toddlers, and we needed many people to depend on. Now at the end of our time here, we are finally independent.
I wrench myself out of my thoughts, shaking myself mentally to get out of my attentive mood. I get up and grab my camera and secure the wristband on my wrist . I walk towards the big crush of people dancing to heavy dance music. I immediately start dancing with wild abandon when I join in with my friends. Whilst dancing, I switch on my camera and I grab my friends together to take numerous pictures, desperate to catch the times when we’re laughing, shrieking and pulling silly faces with no care in the world, because it‘s impossible to recreate something like that again. This feels right. I feel as if everything is finally right in the world. It’s that feeling you get when your heart is about to burst out of your ribcage because of the adrenaline rush and because how exhilarated I feel.
The crazy dancing slowly starts to fade away. We’re told to return to our seats and to wait for the goodbye speeches to start. This is the moment we’ve all been dreading yet excited for it. It seems to make it more official. There are tears and laughs and heartache as the various teachers begin to say goodbyes to us. In some ways, it’s as if they are our parents and that they are saying goodbye to their little ones and now letting them brave the world. It sinks in just about now. I look at my friends and see the tears in their eyes that match my own . We also have to say goodbye to someone who’s in our little group as we realize that she won’t be continuing the journey ahead with us. She‘s going to stay in the past. But that’s how we’re going to remember her, her cheeky humour and tendency to start debates and how she’s always been someone to rely on.
The party is now over. It’s time to let go. We all walk out in to the warm July air preparing to take one last group photo with the rest of our classmates. We try our best to smile and not let the tears spoil the picture. We’re still not certain if they’re happy tears or sad tears. We start shouting ‘goodbye!’ ‘good luck!’ We start hugging and holding each other as the emotions gets to us. It’s silly, isn’t it. You would have thought that you would not be that upset. That you don’t even know some people, but still you’re upset that they are leaving. I guess those people becomes part of your every day routine.
It’s time for me and my girls to go now. We give our last goodbyes and hugs to our old classmates and to our ex-teachers. We finally manage to pry ourselves away from them and head towards our seperate homes. I know, however, despite the way I’ll probably be in the future and however far apart I’ll be always from these people that I’ve grown up with, that in the pictures and in my heart I’ll always be forever young and no-one can change that.
I’ve always been told that you make your real true friends when you enter University. When you have your chance to finally express your true self, but I disagree. I think you can make your friends anywhere, at any age. It just depends on how you and your friend maintain that relationship and if you have the power to make it work. The crap that we all got up to when we entered school as immature, nervous kids is going to stay with me for a very long time because me and my friends have that firmly planted in our brains. No-one can take the memories away from me. It was then, really, that we all really found out about ourselves as we progressed through the years. When we first entered school we were timid and small, like toddlers, and we needed many people to depend on. Now at the end of our time here, we are finally independent.
I wrench myself out of my thoughts, shaking myself mentally to get out of my attentive mood. I get up and grab my camera and secure the wristband on my wrist . I walk towards the big crush of people dancing to heavy dance music. I immediately start dancing with wild abandon when I join in with my friends. Whilst dancing, I switch on my camera and I grab my friends together to take numerous pictures, desperate to catch the times when we’re laughing, shrieking and pulling silly faces with no care in the world, because it‘s impossible to recreate something like that again. This feels right. I feel as if everything is finally right in the world. It’s that feeling you get when your heart is about to burst out of your ribcage because of the adrenaline rush and because how exhilarated I feel.
The crazy dancing slowly starts to fade away. We’re told to return to our seats and to wait for the goodbye speeches to start. This is the moment we’ve all been dreading yet excited for it. It seems to make it more official. There are tears and laughs and heartache as the various teachers begin to say goodbyes to us. In some ways, it’s as if they are our parents and that they are saying goodbye to their little ones and now letting them brave the world. It sinks in just about now. I look at my friends and see the tears in their eyes that match my own . We also have to say goodbye to someone who’s in our little group as we realize that she won’t be continuing the journey ahead with us. She‘s going to stay in the past. But that’s how we’re going to remember her, her cheeky humour and tendency to start debates and how she’s always been someone to rely on.
The party is now over. It’s time to let go. We all walk out in to the warm July air preparing to take one last group photo with the rest of our classmates. We try our best to smile and not let the tears spoil the picture. We’re still not certain if they’re happy tears or sad tears. We start shouting ‘goodbye!’ ‘good luck!’ We start hugging and holding each other as the emotions gets to us. It’s silly, isn’t it. You would have thought that you would not be that upset. That you don’t even know some people, but still you’re upset that they are leaving. I guess those people becomes part of your every day routine.
It’s time for me and my girls to go now. We give our last goodbyes and hugs to our old classmates and to our ex-teachers. We finally manage to pry ourselves away from them and head towards our seperate homes. I know, however, despite the way I’ll probably be in the future and however far apart I’ll be always from these people that I’ve grown up with, that in the pictures and in my heart I’ll always be forever young and no-one can change that.