Dear Freshman Ariel Birkholz,
You’ve done so good, you should be so proud of yourself! Go ahead, give yourself a pat on the back. I won’t judge :). Only one semester to go and you’ve maintained that GPA! Yes, I know it’s not exactly as high as you wanted, and I know we still haven’t met that goal of getting the President’s List like we’ve wanted all this time, but think about all that stress you had about whether or not you would do well in school. Well worry not, you’re gonna do just fine.
I can say now that it was definitely worth it. But you know what, I think there are just some things that are gonna take a few more years to change. Stressing over every little thing – still there. Waiting until the last minute to finish most assignments, even the ones we want to do (and what is up with that?!) – still there. Not having confidence in your abilities – still there, too! But we’re getting better, I know it! I believe this year we did even better than last year, and last year even better than the year before, and you better believe the next year we’re gonne do better than this year!
I made a lot more friends since freshman year, and I’ve been more engaged in the community, though not nearly as much as I know we both wanted to be, but we’re getting there. We are graduating soon, and then we can move on to the next step in our life and gradually engage in more things. It can’t all happen at once if we want it to become a regular habit, you know. But we did get a job! Our first job! I know you would be as happy as I am right now, but we know we are NOT going to let this affect our academics; we have standards, after all. And of course, we have to take care of ourself over everything else, there is no life with no one to live it, and to live it happily and healthily is the most important thing of all.
This isn’t the end, but only the beginning; we’ve got so much more ahead of us now! Let’s see where we can go, and strive for all we can. I’m so happy for all we’ve accomplished, all we have yet to accomplish, and the lengths we have yet to go – I know we can go far!
Yours then, now, and always,
Senior Ariel Birkholz