by Lindsey Valdiviez

For my last two years on the Dart staff, in the back of my mind I have always been thinking of what I could write my senior column about. It would be my last published assignment for the Dart, and I wanted to make it memorable. I could never decide if it would be sentimental, comical or a mixture of both. But no matter which mood I decided I should convey in my senior column, there was no way I would be able to think of the best memories and moments I have here. The faces, the stories and the places bring back the memories of the past four years, not a blank Google-Doc screen (yes, I still refuse to call it Google Drive). But as I sit here today with this blank Google-Doc screen and I look back on the past four years, the things that pop in my head are songs. Music is the central thing that connects me with my STA memories. So here are four songs, one for each of my years in high school, that bring back the most memories. Hearing these songs almost instantly takes me back to a situation or a mindset that had significance in my high school career. So here they are:

Freshman Year: Teenage Dream by Katy Perry

My first semester of freshman year was all about Cross Country. Practicing, getting enough rest as requested by Coach Moran, and having the mindset to succeed in our 3.1 mile races. But to complicate things, I ended up with a broken second metatarsal in my left foot. Six weeks felt like six months inhibited by my crutches and a boot. Even though I was unable to run, I had the opportunity to come to every practice and joined the infamous squad of managers. As a crippled freshman, the only thing I could do was tag along in the car and bus with the team, but the varsity girls still made me feel like such an important part. The night before the State meet in our hotel in Jefferson City, the then-seniors Kathleen Hough and Addie Thompson had the team gather in a room as they sang their parody to Teenage Dream – an “XC Dream”. Their lyrics of literally “running away” and not ever looking back stick with me to this day. This song always reminded me that even though sitting out my freshman season was disappointing, looking back in regret would not get me anywhere especially since I could not possibly change the past. But being part of the XC team that year and looking forward to running the next three years made me feel like I was truly living the “Teenage Dream”.

Sophomore Year: We Are Young by F.U.N.

When F.U.N. released their hit single “We Are Young”, just about every highschooler everywhere felt like they had a calling to “set the world on fire”. “We Are Young” will always be one of those typical teenage strife songs, but when I hear it I am reminded in particular of our sophomore CYO basketball team. Maybe it was because my parents had to drive me to every game because I was still 15, or because our post-game celebrations tended to be awkward and uneventful that this song reminded me how young I truly was. This song inspired me to “burn brighter than the sun”, but I constantly felt like my opportunity to do so was hindered by my lack of freedom to drive and go places as I pleased. Nonetheless, singing this song in the car with my friends that could drive increased my teenage angst and made me impatient for our years as upperclassmen.

Junior Year: I Love It by Icona Pop

It was junior year and up until that point my focus had always been on academics. I spent a majority of my frees freshman and sophomore year in the library or in silent study, eager to get ahead on homework. But junior year I realized, this is our second to last year and I needed to make these next two years count. It’s not that I was unhappy being focused on schoolwork, but I noticed that there was more to high school than just grades and test scores. Bonding with more girls besides just my few close friends was something I wanted to do before leaving the following spring. “I Love It” by Icona Pop became the anthem of my more care free attitude. Junior year I learned to be less uptight and to not take life quite so seriously. Keeping the “I don’t care, I love it” motto inspired me to care less about being the perfectly well-rounded person I had tried to be freshman and sophomore year, and instead to do what I loved or what would make me happy for the time being.

Senior Year: Wake Me Up by Avicii

At the beginning of senior year, I had the idea that I was going to live every moment at STA to the fullest. Cherishing the little things and just soaking in every day were my goals. I would be leaving in 10 months, so I might as well make them as memorable as possible. So I thought. After a month or two, all I could think was “wake me up when it’s all over”. I wanted the week days to fly by and the breaks to never end. Hearing the piano melody in “Wake Me Up” almost every morning on my 35 minute drive to school simply daunted me with the thought of how many months we still had till graduation. I became disinterested in my daily routine. I needed something new and exciting to look forward to. To the time “when I’m wiser and I’m older”. But now that it’s the last week of my senior year, I’m mad at myself for living with that mindset. I wish I hadn’t wished my senior year away. But there’s nothing I can do about it now. Senior Year is gone. High school is gone. But I’m not gone. In the words of Avicii “all this time I’ve been finding myself”. And it’s paid off.