by Caitlin Fletcher

As I end my senior year at STA I want to look back on everything I’ve done here. When I started thinking about it, I thought about my favorite days at STA. I managed to come up with three that will stand out in my mind when I think back on STA.

When I was a freshman, Halloween was probably my favorite day during that year. I remember roaming the hallways with my new friends checking out the pumpkins with STA references that I didn’t understand yet. We stood in line for the Prentiss advisory’s haunted house and discovered for the first time (and the last time since I purposefully avoided going under there ever again) the gum covered stairs in the basement of M&A. Ew. Each year after that, Halloween was a little different: the pumpkin competition seemed to become more competitive, the costumes more elaborate, but nothing can really compare to the first Halloween I experienced at STA and the newness of it all.

My next day is more of a week. Each year I absolutely love frosh fest. The chalk drawings that our advisories do (I’m still shocked the Egner advisory never won) is always one of the best things. Girls milling around the quad talking with friends, laying on the sidewalk eating with their advisory and who could forget getting drenched by sprinklers this year? I also love this week because the advisory skits never disappoint. It might be the awkwardness of it all that makes it so funny, but the ideas are also great. I can still feel how fast my heart was beating when I had to walk in front of Goppert with my advisory dressed as a member of the Jackson 5. Embarrassment at it’s finest, but it’s so STA.

My third favorite day hasn’t happened yet. I know. How can my favorite day not have happened? This day is class day. The day the class of 2013 comes to the academy to say their final goodbyes. I can’t even begin to imagine sitting in the auditorium in my cap and gown with all of the girls I have come to know and love over these past four years. It will be surreal, there really is no other way to describe it. I can’t believe that class day will be the last day before graduation that we are all together as the class of 2013, and I can’t wait to experience it all.

So, in this column I say a final goodbye to a few of my favorite days at STA. I will also say goodbye to my teachers, the amazing Dart staff and all of the friends I’ve made in high school. All of you made every moment spent in high school worthwhile. No matter how much I complained about tests, page designs, cross country races or whatever it was that week, I’ve loved every moment spent with my Stars and I know I will miss STA next year. So I guess this is goodbye, it’s been real STA.