Dear High School Juniors

Dear Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and My Beloved Seniors,

Junior Year. How should ones emotions be during their junior year? Happy, because we’re almost seniors and no longer underclassmen? Sad, because we’re ALMOST SENIORS and will be leaving our friends in a little over a year?! I still haven’t figured it out. Junior year on a sports team. Not just any sports team though, a cross country team. Now there’s no question to how I feel, so let me tell you how junior year feels on a cross country team. 

Ever since your freshman year of high school, the current seniors have been there every step of the way. Instantly taking you under their wing as sophomores when you were just a young newbie to the team. As sophomores and juniors they became your best friends because you knew them the best. But when they become seniors? Easily the hardest thing to go through. Junior year is blissful, stressful, disheartening and completely and utterly amazing at the same time. You are welcoming the freshman as new upperclassmen, your sophomores are grown up now and you have a great bond with them, but the seniors, oh those seniors. Your final races with them, their final races on the team ever. How do you say goodbye to the best people you’ve known in your entire high school running career? the people who have guided you, ran with you, and inspired you? You have never been on that cross country team without them, they’ve been there every. step. of. the. way. And now what? They’re just going to leave us, forcing us to take on the role as the new leaders? i guess it’s apart of growing up.

I’m also terrified. This is the last year of racing that I don’t have to worry about my friends leaving me. Next year we have to go through all of our ‘lasts’. Yup, our “last first meet” and our “last pasta party” and everything else you can think of. That all happens next year. But for this year, i’m not worried about my junior friends leaving me. I have to worry about that next year, and it can wait.

But it’s not over yet. We still get to create our bond with the next year juniors, when we’re seniors. We still have more races win our seniors. We still get to lace up our spikes and race with this amazing family we call a team. We still can laugh at inside jokes, and we can still text our seniors even when they’re miles away at college. We still have each other, juniors and juniors hand in hand. We still have pasta parties, and early morning races left to create memories we will never forget with our seniors. The seasons not over. The races are coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean the friendships are. 

Sophomores and Freshmen, enjoy your stress free years. Remember that time flies, and pretty soon the early mornings and late nights and long runs will just be memories so make sure you make them last.

- Anonymous