Senior year. After three years of anticipation, it was finally here. I decided with determination at the beginning that this year was going to resemble all the Facebook photo albums of upperclassmen I had previously viewed. Everything was going to be perfect.

And so it was… for about two weeks. But then, suddenly, before I could blink, I was piled in applications, class work, and extracurricular commitments. Well, okay, I rationalized. This is normal. Everyone says senior year is stressful, right? But I have to remember that I’m the one in control.

However, the next few months brought in a series of events that definitely were not in my control. A modified lockdown at school, the death of one of my classmates, one of my favorite teachers taking a leave of absence for the semester, our well-thought-out Homecoming plans having to be changed because of the rain—it was all too much to handle. Everywhere I looked, students were turning to each other and asking, “What’s going on with this year?”

I realized abruptly that many of the traditions and routines that I’ve come to take for granted over the last four years have been disrupted this semester, and all of us have had to take them into stride. With every curveball that’s been thrown our way, our community has had to adapt and move forward as best as we can while trying to cling to any normalcy that is left over.

With all the external circumstances affecting our community, I began to experience a slight feeling of despair. When would everything end so my perfect senior year could start? But I began to realize how flawed my mentality was. I could not let factors that I wasn’t capable of controlling affect me to such a large extent. It was time for a change.

Now, granted, I didn’t make any life altering decisions or embark upon an Eat, Pray, Love type journey to find contentment. I do not have the time or resources Elizabeth Gilbert had to fund her trip around the world, so I turned to a simpler solution. I resolved to appreciate the value in passing moments. How clichéd, how overused, how trite! Appreciating the little things in life is probably one of the most often given pieces of advice; I’d heard that phrase at least a hundred times in my 17 years. But considering the circumstances, I decided to really, truly, give it a try.

For my English class this semester, we are required to keep a journal and write about whatever we want. I decided to start jotting down little moments that made me smile in that journal or on my computer. I wrote about some of the moments that made my day better and gave me the strength to keep going. Soon enough, the list began to grow rapidly. The memories I wrote about weren’t life altering or awe-inspiring; rather, I listed items such as getting ice cream with friends after school, dancing the Hokey Pokey in AP Psychology class, successfully completing a dissection of a chicken wing, and talking to someone interesting for the first time.

Soon enough, my mood did begin to shift. I was still bogged down by completing college applications and dealing with confusing and slightly troubling events, but by listing out the things in my life that caused me happiness, I began to appreciate these smaller moments. Making these lists also helped me live more in the present, rather than continuously looking forward and assuring myself that perfection lay in the path in front of me. The truth is, there really is no such thing as the perfect senior year. Life happens, and we have two choices: to let ourselves become overwhelmed by events we cannot control or to move past the turmoil and embrace the good times. It may have taken the better part of a semester to realize, but I choose option two.