With senior year on the way out and college life just beginning, I say good-bye to a cleanly-shaven face and embark on my days at California State University, Fresno, with a permanent five o? clock shadow.

Though facial hair has come and gone over my four years in high school, and even half a year in the eighth grade, friends continue to remain the driving force behind my willingness to succeed and when necessary, relax and have fun.

When I began my freshman year, all my preconceived expectations were shattered. My first misconception was in the realm of football, since I believed that I could become an All-League linebacker and receiver overnight, dazzling the crowds with my mystical talents as they cheered me on in a ?Rudy? like chant from the stands.

As irony often contorts daydreams into comical scenarios, I soon realized that football was not as easy as it seemed on Sports Center, so I turned my demand for physical activity to P.E. instead. It offered all the fun of an actual after-school sport without the constant stress of winning or dealing with two-a-days in 110-degree heat for three hours at a time.

Now, I may not have been the best at P.E. either, but I definitely had fun.

From playing floor hockey during winter days to shirtless Tuesdays in paddle tennis, P.E. remains the one class that makes me dread graduating. Some of my best memories during the confines of school hours happened during those 55 minutes as I grew close to students of every class as the laid-back competition supplied a perfect environment to bond with my classmates.

Apart from the satisfaction of my daily dose of physical activity, the friends that I leave behind, as classmates seek their own separate paths, makes me feel lost as to what my post-high school life has in store.

Of my four years of high school, senior year has been the most rewarding and enjoyable experience of my life thus far. If it weren?t for my friends and I doing the crazy things we did on the weekends, high school would not have been the thrill ride it?s been, and I?m glad I was a part of such memories.

With the intermittence of college classes unlike the monotony of seven hours school days, I think I?ll finally be able to pursue my dreams in aviation by flying more often while attending classes and working on a masters degree in business management.

After four years of striving to earn life-member status of the California Scholarship Federation and enduring three years of journalism, all of which have helped me to become a more effective communicator, I have learned that it is not important to be great at everything; just find one interest that brings happiness to you and as Bachman-Turner Overdrive once sang, ?Do it ’til your satisfied.?