Senior Year Research Paper

Words: 1287
Pages: 6

There is a saying that senior year of high school is the golden year of adolescence. After 11 years of school, senior year is that top of the food chain, the final year before adulthood. Leaving junior, I was ready for that golden year. My training for cross country was paying off and I was set for a season of personal best after personal best. I achieved my lifelong dream of joining the Varsity Singers. I was confident. I felt good. As an AP student about to graduate with a 3.8 GPA, senior year was going to be my year. There was nothing that could've prepared me for the small moment. Ten minutes was all it took to knock me down. Ten minutes was all it took to change my senior year and teach me the importance of mental health.

It was a warm week in August when our cross country team left for camp. It was my first and only year attending camp. The only reason I went was because my sister was a freshman varsity runner and my parents didn't want her to attend camp alone. I didn't care to be there. I ran cross country because I enjoyed running, not because I was an athlete. A lot of my teammates made sure I knew that I didn't belong on the team. On the second day or third day of camp during some rare down, My teammates, minus my sister – which I will forever be thankful for- were playing volleyball on Lake Michigan while another girl and I were napping in the sun. We'd woke up and were walking over to join the game when
…show more content…
Four of my teammates and a runner from another school were in the water immediately. Three of us were on our cell phones with 911. All of us on shore thought that it was a camper that got pulled in by the undertow. They pulled the young man onto the shore just as a handful of the team coaches reached the beach. He was already gone. His skin a tint of blue that I'll never unsee. I turned my back when CPR was started. I was heading back to the cabins as ambulances arrived and EMTs ran to the