I like for me senior goodbye

I never liked going to school, in Italy there is nothing fun about it, but since I am here I look forward to going to Knoch every single day. Don’t get me wrong, I hate waking up at 6:30, that’s way too early for me, but once I am there I would never leave. I come in every morning and there’s always something fun and exciting to do. 

It is my senior year but I don’t see it the same way as every other senior does. I haven’t been here for the past years, all my Knoch memories are related to this single year. I waited so long to come to the US and I can’ believe this is already coming to an end. Even if I haven’t been here for long, this place, this school, these people are in my heart and I don’t know how I am gonna handle leaving the life I created with a lot of work during this year. 

There’s many core memories I made this year, some of them are the things I dreamed about for my whole life like football games, homecoming, having a locker(never used lol), halloween, christmas, basketball games, spirit weeks, prom and way more. But those are not the actual things that made my experience special, I could have done those things in every other school. Of course I loved them all but my point is that what made this year wonderful are all the little things that happened with the amazing people I met here. 

My American social life started exactly on August 24th at the ceremony for the change of the name at school. I didn’t know anyone and the next day school was going to start, but that’s when I met some of the people I am friends with now. I am  talking about Jake Santora, Erin Corcoran, Emma Broman, Jessica McCalip and Ally Bauer. They were all so friendly and they made me meet their friend group and I became friends with them too: Eden Moyer, Carly Fraser, Greta Dadoski, Jessica Burgard and Grace Bogaz.  They have all been friends since forever so I was scared to not be accepted, but day after day, month after month, now I am very close with all of them and I cannot imagine leaving them. 

I am gonna quickly say something about all of them. 

Jake is the most extra person I have ever met and I love how he is always himself without worrying about what people think. Erin is such a class clown, she always makes me laugh and I love our hours long conversations in front of my house everytime she drops me off. Carly is the reason I’ll come back next year, I’ll be here for her wedding with some Liberty guy(ring for spring).  Emma is just Emma, everytime she says something so stupid that makes everyone laugh for 30 minutes. Ally is the reason I never do anything in Spanish class because I end up joking with her every time. Eden is the person I would call if I wanted to go to tj-maxx, I lost count of all the times we hung out just to go there and chick-fil-a. Greta is the person who will for sure come visit me in Italy because she already travels the world. Jessie is the person I went to all of the boys basketball games with after our practice. Grace is the person who tried to make me join her long distance group at track without any result. I personally prefer watching her run a mile instead of running it. Jess is the person who I always get late to class with after lunch and the best orange ball maker of all the times. 

 Orange balls, mini waffles, green milk, hot dogs, raw dogs…all of this is obviously a must have in Miss T’s room. That room is the place where I probably spent 123524552 hours of my year. I have newspaper class there, but that’s not the only time of the day I spend there. I have lunch there with my lunch group, I go there after every single field trip hiding from my 8th period class and basically whenever I want. That room is always open for anyone who needs it. Miss T is the best teacher I had in my entire life, she is a legend I’ll bring back to Italy in my heart, that you for everything you do Miss T! 

Speaking of newspapers, of course I cannot end here, I also have to shout out Willow, Lara, Kristen and Violet. All the times we didn’t respect our deadlines because we were too busy playing hay day, we can’t forget about that. Or our tradition of going to breakfast places starting with the epic Country Kitchen at 5 am before school and everyone got sick afterwards(it because they didn’t get the Big Country). I love them all.

Moving to the next topic I have to talk about my Basketball career of course.

Playing basketball wasn’t in my plans since I have never done it, I wanted to be a cheerleader but not always things go how you plan it. I couldn’t be more happy that I changed my mind, this experience would not have been as good as it is without basketball season. I was very bad at it and the girls were really good at it, but they always helped me and made me feel like part of the team. My most memorable moment was senior night when I scored my first and last point, the whole gym was cheering for me and I was so happy that I don’t even know how to describe it. I am so thankful to the coaches but especially coach Andreassi because he gave me this opportunity.  I am not going to name everyone on the team but I want all of them to know I love them so much. The girls I got closer to are definitely Serenity Kosecki and Karlee Buterlbaugh.

I cannot even imagine this year without them, I spent more than two hours per day with them at practice and so much more after school. We did so many things together, I am full of memories that I will keep with me forever.  

I would like to shout out the track team too, I am not gonna say names either because it is way too big. I just wanna say how glad I am to have been part of it, I had so much fun(even if every time I run more than 100 meters I almost pass out).

My advice for underclassmen or future exchange students is to put yourself out there and be involved in as many things as you can, you won’t regret it. If I made as many friends without speaking English correctly, trust me, you can do it too.   

I will love you forever Knoch, your dear Ale.