As cliche as it may be, I never believed the upperclassmen when they told me to cherish my time in high school because of how quickly it would go by. Now that I am days away from walking the stage at graduation, I cannot stress more to the underclassmen to take in every moment they experience.

One regret I have during my time at Bowie is not having joined The Dispatch prior to my senior year. I was welcomed into the class at the beginning of the school year and fell in love with the community found within the staff. The Dispatch pushed me to be a better version of myself and to always find more ways to improve.

To Mr. Reeves – Thank you for seeing so much potential in me. You gave me the opportunity to be a Photo Essay page editor although I had never been in one of your classes before, and I could not be more grateful. You are indeed one of the few teachers I have had during my academic career that has shown to genuinely care about the well-being of your students. Giving me this position made me feel important and valued, and you gave me so many skills that I know will be used throughout my life. 

To The Dispatch Staff – I am so blown away by every class of how creative, hardworking, and driven everyone is. I never thought to pick up The Dispatch before I joined the class, but I now get excited to pick up and read each new issue to see the amazing work y’all have all done. You all put so much time and effort into everything you contribute to this class, and I cannot thank y’all enough for welcoming me with open arms. 

To Reagan – Thank you for being someone I could look up to in the class. With you being the other Photo Essay editor, I always admired your pages and hoped that I could one day create a page as well done as yours. Your work alone pushed me to find new opportunities to capture through a lens, find more people to interview, and page design formats I would have never come up with.

To Mrs. Reyes –  I could not write this without shouting out my favorite teacher from my time at Bowie. Thank you for providing a classroom that I always looked forward to entering. The genuine love and care you express for your students have got me through some of the hardest times in my life. No matter what I was going through, I always looked forward to having your class and my Ready, Set, Teach internship. You are truly a teacher who will have forever left an impact on my life. 

To My Parents – Thank you for providing such an amazing foundation for me to have grown up with. None of your hard work as parents or as individuals goes unnoticed by me, and I am so grateful every day to have both of you as my parents. Y’all have taught me so much about love, one’s mindset, and how to one day be a parent myself. I hope that I can be half as great of a mother as my own when I have my own children. 

This school year taught me a lot about myself and what I value. Although I am nervous to begin college in the fall at Texas Tech, I am so excited to begin this next chapter of my life. I will be majoring in Early Childhood Education as I want to one day have my own elementary school classroom. I hope that I can be as great of a teacher as Mr. Reeves or Mrs. Reyes, as I hope to show all of my students that they matter.