As a senior it’s about time to say hello to graduation and goodbye to public schooling. As the year is slowly coming to an end, it is also the time many seniors like myself, have to decide what the next step is. Whether it is sending applications and getting accepted to college, working for a year, going to a community college, or going into some field of service, there steps into building your future life. I’m more than excited to graduate from high school and experience the “college life” everyone talks about. The experience of living on your own in a dorm, not having parents in your face every morning telling you to go to school and do your homework, has positives and negatives. But someone I know very well decided to not experience that “college life” purse. My sister Erin graduated from Empire Beauty Cosmetology School within the past month and now it’s that time for her to make that next step like I do. Deciding where she wants to work and where I want to go to school next year are hard decisions to make. It’s like picking out a pair of shoes, you want the perfect ones and to make sure you fit in them. I don’t want to go to a school I end up not liking and what if she started working at a salon and didn’t like the atmosphere she was in. Since I’ve been accepted to most of the schools I’ve applied to, it leaves me with a hard decision to pick the final one.
As the time starts ticking away I’ve realized how different things are going to be. One I’ll be living without my family, not having a consistent daily schedule and most of all leaving the friends behind I’ve gone to school with since I was in elementary school. What I’m mostly excited for is meeting new people and living in a dorm. Some may school just isn’t “for them” and I say that I don’t like school almost every day, but without it and continuing my education I wouldn’t feel prepared. I have a couple friends who didn’t even take the ACT because they already knew they weren’t going to go to college, but that’s the complete opposite for me. I need to further my knowledge because leaving high school I will admit I don’t know enough to stop going to some sort of schooling after I graduate. I know I’ll go to a four year college and probably switch my major multiple times, and as of right now I haven’t decided. Going from a catholic private school when I was younger than switching to public schools in Eagan was a big change for me. I’d like to say I’ve always done well in school I’m the type of student who always does their homework. I really try to do my best on all assignments, I can’t just not do them because I’m too lazy or the famous line “I forgot it at home.” My whole family has always been on top of checking my grades and report cards and staying involved on how I’m doing in school. Not to brag but I’ve always done better than my sister Erin as far as academics. She was the type of student who didn’t care about her grades; she’d often not turn her homework in on time and or just never do it. So not only are we very different in appearance but as well as academics. Since my high school career had started at Eastview I’ve always paid close attention to my letter grades. I don’t necessarily care about what percent I get in each class as long as I’m happy with my grade.
There are many characteristics that separate my sister and I greatly. We look nothing alike but as well as the “smarts” in the family, I take that role. So it’s always been enforced on me to do my best and really push myself in school .No matter what my parents did to help Erin she still didn’t do that well. She wasn’t the best role model for me to look up to as far as helping me with school related work. But even though she wasn’t a straight A student, she still taught me many things. It’s not that she was a careless student, but she had a hard time comprehending everything. School is something she found hard and dreaded, for me it’s not difficult but I can’t say I enjoy it. And only having a few extra credits to graduate, I’m well over the minimum requirement. Now as I’ve grown up I’ve noticed how my sister has changed. She went from barely participating in high school to going to Empire Cosmetology School for a year and recently just graduated from there. It was like a perfect fit for her, school just wasn’t something that interested her, so she found something that interested her and is good at doing. She had to learn how to do all sorts of hair styles, waxes and nails. She decided to pursue in cutting hair. I’ve had to be her demo before for tests she had to do at school as well as applying for jobs at salons like Coles, Rocco’s, Mia Maxx, etc. Most of all though I’m proud of my sister for doing pursuing a career, because she did take a year off after high school so she was unsure of what to do. “I decided I needed to do something besides go to work a few days out of the week for only a few hours, so I decided cosmetology because I like doing hair.” I’m glad she decided to go to school, even though it’s not academics it’s still a great accomplishment graduating from there. Watching her graduate from Empire inspires me to go to school, graduate and pursue in something I enjoy doing. I don’t want to sit at a desk 5 days a week that doesn’t intrigue me; I’m really interested in fashion and make-up so my dream job is being tied to some sort of fashion or make-up industry in New York.
No matter where I go to school I want to accomplish everything possible that I need to know as my life and career choices pursue to reality. I like how my sister and I are both “seniors” in our schools and we both had/will graduate within this year. It’s an exciting time in both of our lives having, were moving on to the next chapter in our lives. She has inspired me to follow through with my dream, take those steps to reach it. “I’m very proud my daughter has decided to do something with her life, going to any school was a big step for her.” Said our mother. My entire family and my step dad have always encouraged us to follow through with our dreams and goals. Some parents reward or bribe their kids to do well in school and they’ll get money for every "A" they have on their report cards, but my family never did that. Simply because they never worried about me doing badly in school, they have never had to remind me or especially yell at me to do homework.

But no matter where I decide to go to school or who I meet along the I know my sister will always be there for me. Since were both graduates of 2010 we share that in common, and that makes me happy.