One Girl, Two Coasts: Documenting "the End": Part One

Well, I've definitely been holding off on this post because I've been booked up to my neck in activities, events, and other things these past few weeks. However, there was no way I wasn't going to blog about finishing my high school career and getting that lovely little diploma! It still feels surreal, but it sure feels good to be DONE.

For me, the start of senior week was May 31st, when we had Senior Ball at the Top of the Hub at the Prudential Center in Boston. (Crazy classy, am I right??)

That Saturday was an absolute HAUL for me, in that it was ridiculously tiring. I woke up around 4 am to start prepping my hair and make-up for that night.

JOKES! Can you imagine? Hah. No way- I was getting up to drive all the way to New Hampshire/Amesbury, MA to volunteer with HOBY (Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership, a group I am part of) at the Warrior Dash! I had always been super interested in doing the Warrior Dash and thought it would be fun to help out and see how the event was run. Although the only shift I could do was from 6:30 am to 1 pm, I really wanted to be there. I had Senior Ball at 4, but I should be able to have enough time.

I drove about an hour and a half both ways to get there and spent the day at the Check-In Tent with a bunch of other HOBY-ites. We were in charge of checking people in (big surprise there!) by using these electronic lists on iPads to find the participant's name, race time, and t-shirt size. From there, they had to sign a waiver with their finger on the iPad surface, while we gave them their bib, t-shirt, and complementary Warrior Dash fuzzy helmet. If you're uber-jealous that they got helmets, don't worry. You're not alone....at all.

I actually had a woman give me hers back because "she didn't want it". Lady, I don't know what kind of things you've been smoking, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me keep one of these helmets. My day was made right there.

After a very long shift with huge lines of agitated participants shoving their IDs at my face and quick bites of my Panera sandwich and drinks of water, I said goodbye to the volunteers and rushed back to Westborough for an exciting night in Boston. I booked it home; it's supposed to take around 2 hours to get from Point A to Point B, but I did it in about an hour and a half...let's just say I was lucky no policemen were around.

I quickly got ready and threw on my dress (a dress I've had since 8th grade and just haven't worn all high school). Then, Kerry came to pick me up and we drove off to the upper field at the high school, where we'd be meeting as a class to leave. Photos were taken (yay!), a large group photo of the grade was attempted (boo..), and after waiting a very long time on the coach buses, we were finally Boston-bound!

The buses dropped us off at the main entrance of the building, which meant that we were gawked at as we trooped to the elevators in heels, suits, and whatnot. It was simultaneously funny, awkward, and strange. From there, we went up to the 50th floor in groups on the elevators. We finally made it...and the view had totally been worth waiting for!

It was gorgeous up there on the Skywalk (Exactly how I remembered it when I brought a friend from Mexico up there freshman year), there was a dance floor in one corner, and various dinner tables set up for us. We took a lot of laps around the floor, just admiring where we were and also checking to see when the food would be put out.

Our class president and my good friend, Mia, had promised us a delicious meal and had posted the menu on Facebook earlier, so I knew we were in for some amazing things like duck, lobster, ravioli, a crepe bar, steak, pasta, salad, mini sliders, etc. etc. etc. Thankfully, the table that I was sitting at with my friends was called rather early, so we were able to get everything we wanted to before it was all gone or a looooong line had formed. Some of my other friends weren't so lucky; they were called later, and only got to eat the salad that night, since everything else had been taken. Must have been such a disappointment.

After eating, we did some more socializing and some dancing, but also waited a long time in line for the crepes. The rest of the night was spent taking photos and dancing on the cute little dance floor with friends. All in all, it was an amazing time. Super unreal, since we had all been looking forward to it since the beginning of senior year, and also bittersweet.

We went back down in the elevators to our buses that were waiting outside, but since Callaghan (our principal) was on our bus, we had to wait much longer than everyone else for him to finish making arrangements. I took a few naps on the way home (I was completely exhausted), and then joined my friends to change into comfier clothes and hang out afterwards, which was pretty fun as well.

In the end, I got home around 2 and proceeded to sleep right away. It had been an amazing day, and a great way to kick off senior events!