By Joseph McGregor ’25

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around, you might miss it.” The famous quote from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” has never felt more real than the last week of school for me.

My senior year of high school has seemingly flown by. Yesterday, I was complaining to my mom about having to get up in the morning for summer football workouts. Now I’m two days from leaving my second home for the past four years for good.

It feels like only a few months ago I had walked through the doors of Brother Rice as a freshman, only knowing a handful of people and not knowing who I would sit with at lunch. Now I’m preparing to say goodbye to some of my closest friends for the foreseeable future.

My senior year was filled with highs and lows, from starting my first-ever football game to playing my last, or going down to Champaign to watch my friends on the basketball team come up just short of a state championship; this year has truly been special.

Being a senior still doesn’t feel real to me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m writing this story an hour before its due date (like I have with the hundreds of papers I’ve written over the years) or the fact that after freshman year, I willingly chose to take another class with Ms. Pacetti. It still feels like I’m going to be back here in a couple of months with the same group of guys, ready for a new school year.

Looking around this past week has made me realize that these classrooms hold so many memories for me. From Spanish sing-alongs with Doña Marta, to gym basketball sophomore year, every room holds its own set of laughter and good times.

In my time at Brother Rice, I was a part of the football team, BRTV, Crusaders for Inclusion, and I attended Kairos 167. These are where some of my best memories have come from – it could be catching a punt during freshman year football camp to stop us from running anymore gassers, or being partially to blame for Manfre’s hot mics during the basketball games. These are things I will have with me for the rest of my life.

Brother Rice has given me some of the best memories, friends, and teachers one could ask for. Although I won’t miss Turnitin or getting threatened with “The Punisher” every day, I will miss the laughter and fun that every day here has brought me these past four years … because it all goes by in the blink of an eye.