I keep hearing things that remind me of the end of my time in high school as though it’s a bad thing. ‘This is our last’ is a phrase that has become more and more common as my senior year comes to a close, and I know that many things in one place are ending, but as I look towards my future, I can see that I’m ready to fly into the unknown.

A few days ago, my mom began thinking out loud about what kind of life she will have once I leave for New York. We were talking with my grandmother, who calmed my mom’s worries by interjecting that, “ Emily has earned her wings and is ready to fly.” As the end of my time at Cooper gets closer and closer, I can almost see the horizon that leads me to the next stage in my life, and I can’t wait to see what it brings me.

Manhattan is a never-ending frenzy of creativity, and I know that that environment will provide me with the launchpad into the kind of career I want to lead in the modern art and design world. There are moments when I have a flash of what my life will be once I get into that world, and my mind’s eye shows me a young artist flourishing in the middle of a metropolis of culture

When I think about the life ahead of me, I also remember what got me to where I am now, poised to fly into my future. One of those moments begins like this: I remember coming to Cooper in 6th grade and becoming slightly overwhelmed in self-inflicted pressure to have perfect grades. On a particular afternoon, I remember sitting in science with Mrs. Mayberry and fretting about the difference between having an A or an A with a hyphen in front of it. My worries must have shown, because Mrs. Mayberry pulled me aside after class and reassured me that life would not measure me by the number on the paper, but by who I was on the inside. I know that this sounds like a cliche sort of anecdote, but that small bit of advice from my 6th-grade science teacher has followed me through my whole experience as a Cooper student. The thought that what I do is a measure of who I am has been a mentality that has guided me through the metamorphosis from a young girl who liked playing with paper dolls into a budding artist, ready to use my skills to make our world a more creative place.

I truly can’t believe that my time is coming to a close on the Cooper campus. After 7 years of learning about myself and how I fit into the puzzle of the world around me, I’ll miss aspects of the community I have found in the middle of the woods, but I know that all the memories I hold will not fade into the background of my mind as time goes on. Instead, I feel confident that the memories of Cooper I store in my mind will provide the resources and comforts I need to blossom in the future that lies ahead.