In all honesty, my memory of my time at Diamond Bar High School is a little spotty. I don’t remember the football halftime songs I had to listen to every Friday or the color guard choreography I learned my freshman year. The only thing I can recall from my sophomore year is being severely sleep-deprived after pulling all-nighters cramming for AP European History tests.   

Junior year was a blur, with one of the most distinctive memories being studying for my AP tests with the help of Khan Academy while making whipped coffee using a recipe I found on Tik Tok. Senior year has been filled with memories of staring at a screen while trying not to be tempted by the bright red “leave” button that would allow me to crawl back into bed and sleep. 

In spite of my faulty recollection of the past four years of my life, the most significant moments have stayed with me. I remember the adrenaline and excitement that rushed through me before every color guard performance, deep late-night discussions with my friends, the relief I felt when I passed all of my junior AP exams and my time as a writer and now editor for the Bull’s Eye.

I will admit, at first I wasn’t entirely sure if I even wanted to join the Bull’s Eye staff after my first year of journalism. I spent more time my freshman year belting “Hamilton” lyrics with my fellow Bull’s Eye seniors Joshua Chou and Tiffany Lee than I did focusing on Mr. List’s lectures about the decades or how to write a proper lead. However, I am incredibly grateful to my past self for deciding to join the staff after all. 

I’m going to miss seeing Mr. List’s iconic, somewhat passive aggressive, ellipses at the end of every email and message he sends, staying late on campus for deadline nights while eating takeout, the satisfaction that comes with completing an article and the relationships I’ve made over the years. It’s difficult enough to move on to the next phase of your life and let go, but my time as a member of the Bull’s Eye staff has made it so much harder. 

They say high school will go by in a blink of an eye. I know at times it doesn’t feel like it, but trust me it will. I’m not going to say the cliche line that you should make sure to have no regrets and do everything you want to do in high school despite what others may think. That’s just not realistic for most people. You are probably going to have regrets; there will be things you wish you did when you look back. But, instead of focusing on what you should have done, reminisce about everything you did do and all of the memories and experiences you gained that helped shape who you are when you walk across the stage at graduation. In the end, what you can remember is so much more important than what you can’t or wish you could.