We are coming closer and closer to the end of this school year and my junior year. Yay! Well kinda yay.

I am going to be a senior and this makes me so sad. I mean, I have realized that I will have to grow up sometime, but not now.

Throughout my junior year, it’s been fun filled and stressful, but memorable, but soon my classmates and I will be taking the next step into our senior year filled with many “lasts.” Before we do so, I wanted to take a look back at some of my favorite junior year moments. This is it.

At the start of each year, we have homecoming, and you know what that means…KBDC/lip sync, or in other words, Kamehameha’s best dance crew/lip sync. It is a dance/lip sync competition that all grades participate in. Let me just say, that this is my favorite thing, my favorite homecoming event, and, well, one of my favorite activities for the whole year. Ever since my freshman year, I have danced in, choreographed, and helped lead while creating our performance. It means so much to me.

That is my favorite time of year because my classmates have always come over to my house for at least one full practice, and that is, like, 20+ people, so that’s a lot, lol.

To me, what means the most is seeing everyone have fun on stage, not winning (although we do pretty well). All in all, I just hope that we have a normal senior year so that we can create an amazing performance since it will be our last. I already have ideas!

Other than this, I have also traveled to Washington, D.C., as I wrote about in one of my first blog posts. That trip was amazing because I was able to get closer to my journalism crew, explore new places, and learn more about journalism.

Along with traveling, my family and I went to Las Vegas again for Christmas, which is always fun! (Check out my blog about the Jabbawockeez). Not only this, but in January, I was also able to travel to Oʻahu to go to the opening day of the Hawaiʻi State Capitol.

This event was a real eye opener for me because I got to see what kinds of issues our lāhui faces. At that moment in time, I loved where I was because it reminded me of my experience of the mauna back in July–chanting from left to right, dancing hula all day, and keiki, mākua, and kūpuna making paʻi ʻai. There are so many things to say about my mauna experience, but all I will say is that it was one of the best moments of my life and something I will always cherish.

Overall, that was pretty much it of how my junior year has went. Of course, I can’t forget about paddling, preparing for Merrie Monarch, finishing up my senior research paper, or just adventures with my friends, but I don’t want to go on too long.

It was definitely a year I will never forget. I just hope that I will be able to do things like this again very soon.

This is it, Lauren, one last year.