As I write this I am, according to the Countdown App, I am 2 days 2 hours away from Graduation and 2 days 16 hours away from doing the Walk of Honour (I'll explain later). Not to mention it is 3 days 18 hours until I hop on a plane to Singapore! The title of this blog post is simple, just one more time; that is, just one more time you have to read a post of mine about how excited and nervous I am to finish and graduate high school. I can see how, for most of you, these posts would be quite monotonous but the reasoning behind it is that, I want something to look back on a reminisce on my high school experience. Anyway, I can't even begin to imagine myself in the "real" world. Shit. I haven't given myself time to ponder over the thought that I am going to have to be able to complete basic adult things: cook, clean, wash clothes, pay bills. Fuck. On top of this I have to be independent: wake up without my mum hounding me, go grocery shopping, attend university lectures on time. Double fuck. If you know me at all, you know that I am just one big procrastinator - I don't think I've ever been able to start something when I needed to and it always ends up being a mad rush at the end to make sure I have something done. We are constantly told at high school that once you go off to university no one hassles you for a draft or reminds you when an assignment is due. This frightens me a lot. Back to Walk of Honour, it's this celebration that my school has termed whereby the grade 12s walk through an aisle made of students from prep through grade 11 and teachers and parents who clap as you walk through them; this is when the final goodbyes happen and trust me I am going to be one hot mess. Following this guard of students and teachers the grade 12s jump into the lake in our school and celebrate the end. Once this is done and we've all said goodbye to the other grades and  teachers we all drive down to the beach where we meet others schools and all jump into the ocean in our school uniforms. I'm not really sure how this started but whatever, it's a tradition!

This last week of school has been such an emotional roller coaster. Happy and excited one moment, sad and distraught the next. It was the end of all structured classes so everyone got emotional, we took our class photo and in some classes we exchanged small, meaningful messages/gifts. In English class, our teacher hand selected a Mr Men/Little Miss books for each of us (suited to our personality) along with a little card. In English Extension, we received a book suited to our personality/what we would be interested in along with a very emotional and heart warming note from our teacher; this gift will no doubt be cherished by each member of our very small class as the personal touch brought tears to all of us. And finally, in Drama we spent weeks writing notes to each person in the class and in our final class we opened our "Warm Fuzzy Bag" which had a note from all year 12 drama students plus our teacher. We all sat around together reading our notes whilst playing emotional music; this was one of the most personal moments I've experienced and caused quite a few tears throughout our class. [I feel like my tired state did none of that justice but, imagine it :) ]

I just want to take this, somewhat, personal platform to thank every single person in the 2014 cohort at the school I attend. Thank you for being the kindest and funniest group of people I've ever met. Thank you for being a cohort of people that are completely loving and loveable. And most importantly :), thank you all for knowing how to party.

Nonetheless it's thrilling to know that once I've left the four walls, or gates, of high school I can fully become myself - I can mature into the person I've been waiting to be.

- Emma xo