For the Seniors

Well, here you are, about to graduate. I'm really bad at writing moving messages and all that stuff, so I'm going to be blunt here - I'd just like to take a moment to say thank you to you guys. I've known most of you for as long as I've been in St. A's, and you've really changed my life. Using the very cliched but nonetheless appropriate words of Wicked, "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good." For good meaning for eternity, and also for the better. Also from Wicked, "Now whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend." No, not by me being your friend, not by us being friends. By you being mine. The fact that any of you ever bothered to talk or hang out with me still amazes me. What amazes me more is that most of you went beyond that to actually try to become friends with me. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with - I get random waves of enthusiasm and I'm a very spontaneous person, and I think that scares people, not to mention the fact that I can get shy but blunt at the same time around people I don't know very well - and so I thank you with all my heart for putting up with that to make me feel generally accepted. I'd like to say a special thank you to Sarah, who loved and played with and laughed with and tolerated me for my whole life. I actually don't know how many of you read these posts, if any of you; besides that selfsame loyal sister who reads them even when I don't want her to, but really guys - thank you. Excited as I am to see how we do as oldest in the school, I'll still be one of the youngest, and I'll miss being able to look up to you, to have someone to try to impress, though I'm sure I failed miserably. It really does help to be able to have most of you there to help me build my self control by trying not to be stupid, and the rest of you to be there to allow me to let it out and listen to me. 
Whatever colleges you guys go to, wherever you go in the world, I can expect great things from all of you, and I have a feeling you'll all live up to those expectations. It excites me to look ahead and try to see where you'll all be in a few years. Congratulations, seniors - I am eternally blessed to have known and loved you all, eternally favored as to have known people like you, to have grown up with people like you. I'm the last person to be giving advice, but I'd recommend taking a good look at this ending quote here - one of my personal favorites:
"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." -Pooh Bear
-Rhian