Bottom of the 12th: Graduation

This past week may have been the most eventful, exciting and satisfying weeks of my young life. I had my last days of school, found out my final grades of high school, had my graduation ceremony and party and attended the all-night senior party.

Through my own baseball lens, the week went a little something like this.

The back and forth game had me tired as there were highs and lows throughout the journey. There were close calls at the plate, homerun robbing catches and dazzling diving stops. These were the times that homework was not done the morning of class or when an assignment  had somehow been forgotten until late in the evening.

These moments, although stressful, provided excitement and intrigue. More notably, it provided the great relief that came when I made it through the top half of the inning, the conclusion of school on Thursday and set up the walk-off situation Thursday evening.

The walk off hit came when I was finally able to cross the stage that was set up in Lindbergh Center and I received my diploma. It was the final victory, the end of the great competition against myself, my peers and the expectations of those around me to succeed.

It was the most exhilarating feeling to finally be able to see the tangible effect of the work that had been put in over the course of 12 long innings. My whole family, my grandma and my aunt and uncle were all there along with many of my closest friends. They were the fans that showed support and came out to the stadium and read the weekly updates on the events of the game.

The celebration began just after the final hit was recorded and the winning run crossed the plate. I greeted my teammates first—the peers of mine who had also reached a great victory—and then the fans, my family that had come out once again to support me.

I took off to the all night party, the clubhouse celebration, where the team celebrated the culmination of 12 innings of hard work. The celebration was a blast, but exhaustion set in afterward. It finally dawned on us that we had spent so much energy over 12 years and the last 12 hours as we all went home and crashed.

The next day brought another celebration. Like a championship parade, we celebrated my personal victory with free food, conversation and one of the nicest days of the summer. My graduation party was the final school-related responsibility that I had to take care of before I could get to simply enjoying my free time and the company of friends.

This is the last column of my high school career. I imagine I will continue to post updates, although I still have to work out a schedule for the summer, but I still want to take a time to thank everyone who has followed my column for checking in each week.  Hopefully this column will not be the last you hear from me. I hope you all have an enjoyable summer.