87 Days Until Summer

Lastnight, I was on the computer and I decided to check up on Mr. Sutherland’s website, cruise the dailies, see if anything new has been assigned to our Junior Class. And then, something magical happened: I scrolled down his page, and saw the words “88 Days Until Summer” hidden on the bottom right corner of his website. Now, if it were up to me, I would have a huge countdown clock smack dab in the middle of the site, font bolded and larger than the rest, sprawled proudly for everybody to see, because when I looked at that number, I WAS proud.

I remember the first day of school; I remember Mr. Sutherland showing us his famous “Ted Talks” video; I even remember what desk I was sitting in that morning. But what I remember most, was the feeling of anxiety when I looked at the number on the countdown clock. I can not remember the exact number, but I do remember that it was two hundred-forty-something days. Two HUNDRED –forty-something days. And every week before we went to the lab to blog, I would look at that website and watch as the numbers slowly dwindled down. I am aware that the third quarter is almost over; I know that Junior year is running low on days; and I have even come to terms with the fact that I am going to be a Senior. But there was something that happened when I saw that number on Mr. Sutherland’s site: it hit me that this year is almost over.

Some signs that could have hinted me towards the fact that school was 3 months from over: 1) Posters hung around school advertising yearbooks, 2) Junior Prom has already come and gone, 3) My Senior friends are starting to get accepted into colleges, 4) The long-anticipated Talent Show has graced us with its oddness, 4) My weekly blog post now has 29 entries, 5) The sun is shining harder than it has since first quarter, 6) Everybody is making summer plans for cruises, Disneyland trips, visits to family members who live in the middle of nowhere, 7) People have begun to wear shorts, skirts and flip-flops again, 8) My sister is taking the Sophomore-required High School Exit Exam, 9) My counselor is constantly reminding me about the importance of my success in Summer School, 10) I have been making more tips at a job whose success is very much controlled by the weather.

Yet despite the fact that all these things have been intense reminders of the fact that my Junior Year has almost ended, I feel like the number “87” has completely come out of left field. Sure, when you think about 87 more days of school, you don’t exactly associate it with the school year being almost over. But when you compare it to the two hundred-forty-something days we were faced with mere months ago, 87 is not that big of a number at all. It is even scarier to think that a year from now, there may be 87 days until high-school graduation. Now that is something worth counting down to.