The Last Walk

Kaitlyn Renda

I sit and wait to walk into the doors of my future. I feel my knee bounce up and down, like the rhythm of the clock’s tick; the one I would so desperately watch every day. But it feels awfully comforting to realize that I will never have to see any of my classmates ever again. They will turn into the type of people that you pass at the grocery store and give a little head nod to. People I saw every day since I was 5 will now turn into people I might not ever see again. The buzz around me distracts me from this thought, but it moves on to something worse. What if I trip? What if I shake the wrong hand? What if they forget to call my name? So many thoughts run through my head like the bustle of people at a train station. That’s when I heard the band start playing “Pomp and Circumstance.” That was my cue to start walking in the line that led to the rest of my life.

I take my first step, and then another, and then one more until I reach my last ever assigned seat in school.

I zone out as the principal starts giving a speech about our future. Some of the same old stuff every adult says about how we should “treasure these moments” and “don’t move too fast.” All I could think about was the fact that this was it. The end. The last moment of my childhood. The moment I had to become an adult in the real world.

This thought bounced around my head for a while until I saw the people in the row in front of me stand. They started calling names.
What was I gonna do? So many options of how to walk, and somehow I couldn’t think of one. How did I not think of this earlier? It’s one of the most important times of my life, and I didn’t plan it beforehand.

Somehow, through all this thought, I missed the fact that I was 1 person away from walking. As I took a step, I realized it was not that bad. Maybe this was a metaphor for what my life will be like in the future. I accepted my diploma and shook a hand, and I was done. Done with school. Done with teachers. Done with friends.
As I tossed my cap in the air, I realized that this wasn’t the end, it w

as just the start of something new.