As we near the end of the school year, seniors get ready to say their final goodbyes. With obstacles such as Covid-19 coming into place, the seniors have different takes on their high school experience. Here’s what the seniors of the Journalism class of 2022 have to say:
Leaving Galileo feels like a lot of weight was lifted off my shoulders. I put in a lot of work and effort to graduate and I am finally going to graduate.
It feels good to know that the nights I stayed up late studying for the next day paid off, and the times I turned down going out with my friends to have fun were not in vain.
It does make me sad because I missed my junior year at Galileo and the possibility of making more friends. And it sucks because I could have made more memories with all my friends which I wasn’t able to due to the pandemic. But overall I am really proud of myself and how far I made it. I’m a little scared because I don’t know what’s going to happen next but it makes me all the more excited about the possibilities.
– Mircka Garcia
Throughout my 4 years at Galileo, I would describe it as a typical high school experience in which I did nothing notable, which made my high school years very boring. But the opportunities of making new friends and spending more time with my family, which helped shape my morals and priorities.
To me, high school was boring because nothing memorable really happened at school. There were no moments that happened that mattered to me or that stood out to me in a way that would make me think of the moment in the future and reminisce on how that was such a meaningful experience for me. There were no stand out class lessons or classes, and the fact that everything about high school is very routine makes it very boring. Every day I do the same thing: wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, go home, do homework, watch TV, sleep, wake up and then do it all over again.
However, even though there were no memorable moments in high school, my friends and family made high school much more fun and important for me. I got to know my friends even better as we occasionally hung out after school, doing things like going to get ice cream. Also, as I became a bit more emotionally mature and understood why they do some of the things that they do, I feel like I know my parents better which has made our relationship even better.
Furthermore, I felt that making memories and making friends helped me shape my personality. Most of high school was spent with me trying to figure out who I am, and my friends and family helped me accomplish that.
Overall, I am very grateful for my friends and family that encouraged me to do the best that I can. My family has taught me very valuable life lessons that helped shape my morals. Thanks to them, my 4 years at Galileo became more memorable to me.
– Catherine Montoya
I’m going to miss a lot about Galileo. I’ll miss all of my friends, but especially a junior girl named Riley. She’s become my best friend.
Over the years at Galileo, I have had many friends, but none who compare to Riley, who I met this year in Journalism. During class, she’s helped with a lot of things, including; teaching me how to write better, helping finish our stories together, and she is always there for me if I need someone to talk to.
My favorite memory is definitely going on our walks around the school to find people to interview for our stories in Journalism because it was fun just talking to each other and finding our friends to interview.
After high school, even though I may be a lot more busy, we plan on keeping in touch together and hanging out more often.
-Myles Chu
Due to pandemic, I missed my junior school year and lost the opportunity to make more friends. That made my high school experiences boring since nothing memorable happened during that period of time, but making friends and spending time with them helped me develop a better personality.
Although there’s not many great things that I have achieved, I feel proud and thankful about having the opportunity to meet the people around me, the classmates, teachers, friends, and staff. My experiences with them aren’t thrilling and full of surprises. But the people at Galileo High School always express their profound feelings and rich thoughts in simple languages and words to describe directly without any cheesy modifications. This gives me profound, approachable memories from these experiences.
Senior year of high school is full of goodbyes; however, it’s just the beginning stage for me. By the time I walk out of the doors to my school for the last time, I feel I am already processing it all. It didn’t make leaving classmates, teachers, and staff behind any less daunting, but I know it’s a start. I calm down as I walk away from high school for the last time because I know it’s just my first step to be an adult who fights for livelihood.
– Celiang Huang
High school was a rollercoaster. From only having freshman year to half of sophomore year in person before covid hit, to getting to experience our senior year back in school with all my friends. It’s crazy how thought 2 weeks of quarantine would turn into an entire year and a half. The pandemic definitely affected me academically and I kind of lost motivation for school.
When they told us we would come back, part of me didn’t know how to feel about seeing everyone again but part of me was happy to get to see my friends again. I guess I can say the class of 2022 was lucky enough to come back to school for a full school year.
We were able to have our last song and yell, go to prom, and now we will have graduation. I am happy that I got to make memories with my friends and we made the best of this year because I will cherish the moments we took the bus together after school, going to lunch, and always making jokes in the hallways.
Overall even though I always wanted to finish high school to get out of here, I might actually miss it. As I turn in my last assignments and my textbooks to my past teachers I start to remember my years here at Galileo. Even walking by the gym and the locker rooms made me think about cheer practice after school my sophomore year. But now this chapter is over and I get to start a new one, goodbye Gal.
– Kelly S. Trejo
Graduating high school is something that I’m pretty excited about. Not only is graduating high school an accomplishment, moving on from doing the same thing everyday for 4 years will be pretty refreshing. During my four years of high school, I’ve been through a year and a half of online learning thanks to zoom and there are definitely things that I both miss and not miss.
There isn’t really that much that I won’t miss about Galileo. One thing that I won’t miss is the dirty bathrooms. Whichever bathrooms I walked into, there would be messes everywhere, graffiti, and unflushed feces and urine on the toilet. There would also be sketchy-looking people in the bathroom smoking, hanging out, and one time, there was a fight in one of the bathrooms. Speaking of which, the kids who run around the halls are pretty annoying and I always wonder why they go to school to skip class. There are usually better places to be if you are skipping class like the beach or a restaurant.
I guess the only thing I liked about my time in high school was that I was able to explore different routes I have and was able to participate in sports more specifically tennis, all for free. These reasons are honestly the only things I missed about high school.
– Larry Ma
My high school experience was all over the place.. Literally. I started off going to high school in South SF before transferring back to the city my sophomore year. I went to John O’ Connel for about a week, transferred to Burton that same semester, and didn’t end up at Galileo until the following semester of that year. Therefore, it’s safe to say that my high school experience was different.
Though I believe transferring a lot took away from being able to have a memorable high school, we were also hit with Covid that same semester when I came to this school. Because of this, I ended up also having to be online for part of high school – half of my sophomore year and my full junior year. Knowing that my high school years were all over the place, it definitely sucks because it feels like I wasn’t able to have the high school experience I wanted.
However, when we were able to come back for senior year I felt a little hopeful. I thought maybe, we’d get to experience more rallies like my freshman year, a homecoming, a prom, senior sunrise, and just more group activities as seniors.. But I was wrong. We didn’t really get much other than one rally and a prom that wasn’t really what I pictured either.
All in all, high school wasn’t really my favorite nor was it memorable. Nonetheless, I can say I’m proud to be able to look back on the way I performed academically in the majority of my classes, the way I performed on the field during my first and last year of joining flag football, and the experiences I was able to partake in. It’s really a bittersweet moment. I’m happy to be done and moving forward, but a little sentimental that it’s all really over.
– Shania Mejia
I wouldn’t have made it through high school without a particular friend. On the first day of school in my freshman year, I met my friend early in the morning while taking the bus. I remember saying, “Hey you seem familiar,what school do you go to?” And they said, “I’m barely gonna be a freshman at Gal ” We then had a nice conversation and shared schedules, that’s how our friendship began.
My favorite part of high school was getting to hang out with them everyday at lunch. We would always crack up to jokes and talk about our favorite hobbies, even about random things we encountered throughout the day. Our favorite spot was near the beach because not many people would be there. They will always be important to me because they were the only friend that was there for me. Whether I needed help or someone to talk to.
As we come to the end of senior year I feel like I’m going to miss them. Even though we will go our separate ways, I hope the best for them. I thank them for the best years of high school and for all the memories that I will keep forever.
– Ethen Chen
