An inclusive environment, friendly faces, and a “we are one” mentality are all spectacular attributes of our school. This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for being able to attend Liberty all four years of my high school education.

As a freshman, high school was an intimidating jungle gym, somehow full of older but more immature adolescents. I can still remember my freshman history class with Ms. Mathwig—a new teacher at the time—having to teach a disobedient and loud group of obnoxious students. It was the rowdiest class I had ever been in, and I’m pretty sure everyone has experienced a class so mischievous that you don’t understand how the teacher doesn’t pull out his or her hair. Thank you, Ms. Mathwig, for putting up with us.

By sophomore year, I felt like I had high school all figured out, walking around the halls with a badge of not being a freshman anymore. Man, I felt on top of the world, but I walked straight into a pole when it came to chemistry. I remember the vivid nightmares of struggling to understand moles, acidity, and dimensional analysis. Thankfully, my classmates were my shoulder to lean on, and we conquered the class. Thank you to my classmates and to the challenge of chemistry.

All of the sudden, it was junior year. The stress piled up on me, and I was being crushed by the mountain that was my AP classes and studying for the SAT. Luckily, I basically lived in the amazing Ms. Daughters’ classroom. AP Lang, Editorial Leadership, SAT Prep, and Journalism were my sanctuaries junior year, as well as having Ms. Daughters as a personal teacher and the advantage of her amazing private computer lab. Thank you, Ms. Daughters, for everything.

Now I’m a senior, and it’s my last year here at Liberty. It doesn’t seem like reality yet, but so far it has its perks: sitting front row at football games, screaming “senior power” at assemblies, and parking in spots closer to our school building.

The ending of high school is a bittersweet situation, but I am so fortunate to have been able to attend Liberty over any other school.