Every year when the seniors graduate, they always get asked what they will miss about Westminster. They usually say the same things, their friends, teachers, and Spirit Week. While I happen to agree with all those things, I’m opting to take a moment to remember some of the things I think get overlooked and I’ll miss about the Academy.

This one is going to seem obvious when I say it, but I think because we are here so often we don’t see it as much; our school campus is beautiful. I mean, if you think about it, it’s one of the prettiest high school campuses around. Not just outside, but inside too. We are lucky to have a maintenance staff that keeps campus so bright, shiny and clean, and I’m grateful for all their hard work. I’ll never forget how blown away I was the first time I set foot on campus. I’ll miss all those walks around campus with my friends, whether I was enjoying nature and weather, or wandering the halls trying to find a teacher to talk to after school.

One thing about WCA that I have always loved is how friendly people are. Whenever I walk down the halls, there is always someone to say hello to. I think it’s pretty cool that if you say hello to one of your teachers, they will say hi back. Or even a teacher you don’t know, there’s always someone there. Other places that I’ve been too it hasn’t been like that (not that they weren’t friendly or anything), but as an introvert I like knowing there is usually someone to say hi to. 

Most of all it’ll be weird to not be at Westminster anymore. I’ll just miss simply being a student at the Academy. Sure it’s been rough sometimes, but overall I’ve had such a good experience here that I wouldn’t change. I think it’s easy to overlook your current status as a Westminster Wildcat when you are a student, but once I started to realize that in a couple months I’ll be a Saint instead of a Wildcat, it hit me that things are changing and changing fast. 

I think it’s the little things that I will really miss- I’ll always remember the big things, but I think it’s the little things that mean the most to me. I’ll miss driving to campus every day. I’ll miss waving to my friends in the halls. I’ll miss the familiarness of people and places at the academy. I’ll even miss the late nights studying for tests or editing my papers for English classes. Someday in the very near future it’ll come to an end, and even though I may still do some of the aforementioned things in college, it will be different. So these last few days I’ve been trying to savor these last few moments of the little things (even when we’ve been quarantined at home) so that when I graduate, I can look back and smile.