As the end of the year rapidly commences, new fears of what my future will hold begin to flood my mind. It seems that from the time of my childhood I’ve desired to be independent of my parents and be free to live on my own.

Yet for the past month since turning 18, I’ve begun to realize the significant increase in responsibility. Each day seems to bring new pressures to make decisions which will affect my future and leave only myself to blame for the results.

There are many natural fears that invade my mind when thinking about being out of high school next year. Thoughts of who will I become, will I succeed in life or even will I be able to survive on my own?

At the beginning of the year after being nominated student body president, journalism adviser Greg Stobbe approached me with congratulations and some news. But he also made me aware that although I hadn’t signed up for our award winning publications class, I would indeed have to produce articles for The Feather Online, as part of my presidential duties.

Hearing the news I began to doubt my abilities and think to myself that it was unfair that nobody had even mentioned that this is what my job would entail. Yet with determination to succeed and stretch myself past my comfort zone, I began to write.

Throughout the year I was certainly challenged and pushed to my limits, but with the tremendous help of many friends and peers, I have been able to press through to where I am now. Looking back, the point at where I am at now was never even in sight; but my growth began with taking that first step despite my initial fears of failure.

The thing is, each person comes to a point in their lives where they have to let go of their childhood. This doesn’t mean you have to change your personality or what you love to do, but become more aware of your actions.

Growing up most of us have had some type of authority figure in our lives to help guide us and let us know when what we are doing is wrong. Now, I see that the choice is mine to decide what standards I live by, and no one will give concern to what that may be.

Personally, I’ve set a mental picture of what kind of person I want to become in the future. For instance, what important character traits and qualities I want to posses, and what kind of person I want others to view me as. Having this goal in mind I feel will help me focus on decisions not only in the moment but also what affects they will have on what is to come.

Moving on towards on to adulthood is an exciting as well as nerve wracking time, but knowing that we don’t have it all figured out yet presents us a prime opportunity to grow while not being afraid to ask questions.

Senior Chandler Vargas will attend Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego in the fall.

For more opinion articles, check out Brooke Stobbe’s May 3 article, Father-daughter relationship develops new insight.