lesson from ms. frizzle (buzz week 2/5)

4/21/26 [26]

yo,

for todays post i want to share with you some wisdom that i received a very long time ago, and to this day keep with me. it's becoming especially relevant as we get closer to graduation, and what comes next, which is what this entry is about. i'll share it with you here:

"Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!"

: ms. frizzle

i started to think about this quote again about half a year ago. i was chilling in a parked car with a friend of mine who graduated from high school a couple of years ago. we were talking about how my first semester of senior year was going, and all of my troubles and happenings seemed so trivial compared to what they brought to the conversation. not that it wasn't any less important, it's just as they started to talk about what was going on in their life i realized that there was this gap between what we held important to ourselves. upon bringing this up, they brought up a lot of things i still think about whenever i mull over what it means to be the age that we are, in the time that we are in.

the first thing they said was how high school was this time where everything gets blown up to a larger than life scale. little setbacks feel like the end of the world. small, normally unsubstantial things become these huge blobs in our heads, everything becomes really important and confusing all at once, and no one is there to let you know that pretty much everyone else feels that way to some degree as well. but the next part was what really caught my ear. despite all of this pressure, despite all of this significance, high school is the time to mess things up. they said that this time should be all about doing things wrong, making every mistake possible. how it was a good thing to be embarrassingly oblivious, to have nothing figured out. they said that one of the greatest parts of high school is that you still have time to play things by ear, to fall on your head and get back up. or try something new, or just simply try on as many different things as possible, even if many of them might not fit right at all.

the person that i talked to that day isn't much older than us, and even now they can realize how things have changed for them. the pressures of a job, of making your own income. of an even higher education, of "grown up" chores and activities and pressures. all of these things compound. and they said that these aspects of young adulthood weren't inherently overpowering, just that they left a lot less room for flexibility, to getting things wrong or trying something different. it becomes much more about your routine, your plan. you have to be a lot more purposeful as time goes on, they said.

so that's my takeaway for you from this post. i think we should all be a little messier. more rough around the edges. it just makes sense, for us to be so young and in a time so quick like a lightning flash, to take it for all that it's worth and be a little more flexible about who we are and what we want to accomplish. mess up a little more, and don't be afraid to fail. if it seems like a lot, start small. get comfortable with rejection, with getting told no or simply having something not work out for yourself. set out to accomplish things, even if they might not come to fruition. try stuff out, see what fits. fall down, get up. this stuff seems corny and simple, i know. but it's easy to forget sometimes, and every time i mention this thought to someone older than me, they all agree that this is the time to get things wrong and not be afraid about it. so i think that you should give it a try. and when the stakes are so much lower, and when the world hasn't quite yet prepared to sanction every misstep and misdeed you make as an adult, what is there to lose? get out there, people.

i'm going to stop writing before i get to self-help sounding, but you get the idea. no matter how your senior year is looking so far, get more comfortable with being a little messier. i think you'll end up liking it. i'll be back tomorrow with more for you. cya.

a

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how im feeling right now (buzz week 1/5)

4/20/26 [27]

yo,

the clock keeps ticking down on this little moment of ours. i feel it flexing around a little bit every now and then, and that's why i'm here, writing to you today. last night, i was making my way back from some prom festivities, and i started thinking about everything we've talked about on this domain of ours, and how much i still have left to say. that's when i realized that there wasn't much time left, and that i still haven't said half of what i want to say yet. so that's what this is, a big chunk of it. this post is going to be the first of a series of posts this week. i'm forcing myself to write to you once a day, for this entire week. i'm starting this one, and it's a long one as well, because it's been a while since we've caught up.

i guess the main thing i want to talk about is where we're all at. we can start with prom. i think that it's more so about the prom season in general than the event itself, and i think that most people agree with me on that one. i entered the venue at a reasonable time, and spent a couple hours dancing and having a good time. some of my friends said it was underwhelming, some said that they had a blast. i'm somewhere in the middle. on one hand, it was kind of incredible to see us all get together and just let loose a little. i'm glad so many of you got up a danced! i had fun, it was for sure enjoyable. on the other hand, it was kind of bittersweet, as all things this senior year are. i left just a bit early and was on my way to go out to eat with some friends, and then i felt a little sad because i knew that this was going to be one of the last times where we're pretty much all in the same room together. but i think now as i right this, i'm glad that it happened anyway, even if it was just for a little while.

that's how i feel about this whole high school thing in general. i had my highs, i had my lows. i'm sure it's the same for you. especially at a school like this, you are pretty much bound to go on a journey if you are student here. there are good days and bad days, days that i wished i never came here at all, even. i can't tell if i some of the choices i made were right or wrong, or whether they mean much to begin with. honestly, these past 4 years might not amount to much of anything at all in the long run, and there's a chance that me and plenty of other people forget what just happened here and go on with the rest of our lives without much thought or weight to the moments and emotions that seemed to our teenage brains to be the greatest deal in the whole world.

another, equally minded part of me believes in a different way of things playing out, or maybe just a different way of looking at things. almost a hundred of us, for one reason or another, ended up signing on to come to school at this place. for reasons inexplicable to me or any of us, we've all been placed in this environment with each other. we've walked the same two halls for the past four years, walking past each other every weekday. some of those people you will know very little of. others, you know almost everything about. and i guess someone could make a big meaning of it all, of those highs and lows and the friendships and the everyday buzz of it all. but to be honest, i get a different feeling that kind of renders all of that mute, anyway. so much has happened here, this place means so much to me. people here mean so much to me. my time here is so very meaningful. at this same time, i don't think i will ever make sense of it, and i find that kind of beautiful. for the longest time, i've been trying to find some sort of main idea to my time here. was there some sort of lesson i was supposed to learn? do i win a big prize at the end, like in some sort of video game? i guess i was expecting there to be more payoff to this, like there would be an "aha!" moment, a place in time where i could finally say i figured out high school and everything it meant for me. but because of all the growth i've had senior year, because i've seen all of you live your own distinct lives and realities everyday, i'm kind of okay with that day never materializing for me.

what i'm trying to say is, i don't think there will ever be a point to this. there is no grand journey or lesson for us. there is no clean storyline, no demarcated trend for us to say we've grown up or that we've resolved something big. but that doesn't mean that this moment of ours can't have meaning. there's still so much to value here, and i don't even think the fact that it's ending soon matters all that much. for me, i've been looking back a lot. old photos. voice memos, videos i've saved all the way back from freshman year. it's been really refreshing for me, almost like a digital scrapbook for my memories. it's led to a lot of thinking time for me, and it's made me come to a lot of realizations about myself, my time here, and things i want to tell you.

so my advice to you is to give this time some meaning. it doesn't have to be a big one, or a grand complex one, either. just go out and figure it out just a little bit! make a scrapbook, listen to an old playlist. look back in your photo gallery. it doesn't have to be specifically about the past, it could also be about these last few weeks of senior year, too. make this time mean something, every time you have a choice between making a memory or staying inside, scrolling some more, or anything else that you'll forget about in a couple days, choose the memory-maker! i really need you to understand this: it's not about the timeline. so much can happen in a couple of weeks, a couple of days even. i know that the last few have been so impactful for me, so who's to say that the countdown getting smaller means that you don't have time to make some more memories and live a little?

that's my main message to you, and i hope you take some of the things i've written down our domain here and apply them in whatever way you can to your last few weeks here. now i'm gonna provide you with some quick updates before singing off until the next post tomorrow. i would write down a lot more in this one post, especially considering the long gaps between posts (sorry!), but then i wouldn't really have much more material for the rest of the week, so this is going to have to do for now.

first, i've been working more often on your countdown gifts. there's for sure a lot more work to be done, but i have some time left. my goal is to finish all of them within a couple days of day zero, and i'm sure you can calculate that one for yourself. just know that it's going to be really special, and you are going to love it. trust me. second, i'm excited for the end of the year stuff that's planned for the next couple of weeks. i hope all of y'all participate as much as you can in things like international day, senior trip, i think there's a senior fun day? basically things like that. soak-a-senior really showed to me how fun these things can be. i used to not be a big fan considering how they disrupted the schedule and such, but now that classes are winding down i really don't care tbh. bring it on.

and one last thing, make sure to document this time for yourself. of course, i'm biased about this fact. i created this domain specifically for that purpose, and am also taking photos very often, documenting senior things, etc. but i think that it's a great idea for any senior to document their last year of high school. so take a lot of photos, make stupid tiktoks with your friends, whatever you do to make memories that last. you will thank yourself later in the future, when you have tangible things to look back upon and remember how things were during this period of your life.

that's all for now. i want you to know that this means a lot to me, and i'm not afraid to say it. i really like it here, and i want you to like it too, as much as you can. enjoy this. enjoy this.

a

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advice column from an ancient giant

3/30/26 [48]

yo,

i'm back! another week has passed, and it feels like a month's worth of stuff has happened already. prom's just on the horizon, prom king/queen nominations just got posted, and it's about to get real busy after we get out caps and gowns. oh, and i voted for senior superlatives. who knows, maybe i nominated you for something?

i wanted to hop on here and talk for just a little bit. think of this as the appetizer for something big, because that's what the next one is. i know that a lot of you are feeling the same things i am, and i hope that you connected to that last post i made. if you did, even a little bit, then i also hope that you're taking my advice and making the most of this last stretch of sunlight we have. i want to share one way i've gone about this: i have a checklist with a shitload of stuff i want to check off before the clock hits zero. things i've been putting off, places i want to visit, people i wanna hang with, that sorta thing. i think you should give it a shot, i'll even start you off.

eat a new dessert

catch up with an old friend

fill up your gas tank

my list is a lot longer, and of course more specific to me. that's kind of the fun of it.

one more thing before i get to the real deal here, i updated the website to fix a bug that led people to the wrong domain. it should be fixed now, and anyone with the url can get in now. more and more people are logging on, so it seems like it only happened for a few sign ons, but now there should be zero percent chance of someone trying to access this place and not being able to, which i'm glad to say.

okay, now for the big drop today. i know that a lot of you are feeling the same things as me. there's a lot up in the air right now, and it's hard to find an example or guideline to how these last few weeks are going to go down. so that's why i got a brilliant idea: just ask someone who's done it before! so that's exactly what i did. i interviewed someone from a few classes back, and i've attached it to this post. lots of cool advice for us in there.

alright, that's gonna be it this time. keep an eye on your inbox.

admin

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3/18/26 [60]

ruminations: big and little stars

above the author at the time of writing

hey,

I’m writing to you under the stars right now, I stayed up late to type this one out. It’s been a while since I’ve last talked to you. If you’re just logging in (I’ve been seeing a couple of you that have), then you should probably read the welcome post at the bottom of this page before reading this entry.

I’ve been thinking about what to write to you for a while. The truth is that there’s just a lot out there, and i want to document this moment for us as clearly as possible. At first i felt a little reluctant to take it all on, but i think that I’m ready now, especially after the break we had. I’m gonna start from the beginning, and go all the way to the end. This one’s going to be quite long, but I hope you understand that i have a lot of ground to cover. I hope you also know that I’m probably just as clueless and confused as you are. I don’t have all the answers, i just have this place to talk to you, and i think that’s special enough to mean something to someone. If this project makes that true for even one person, then it was worth it. At the very least, i know that you will all enjoy my final letter to you the day before we graduate. I’m still working on those, by the way. I already completed one. Maybe it’s yours.

For now, the clock continues to tick down. Today it reads 60 and tomorrow it will read 59. The sun is setting, and i can feel a new stretch of time starting for us. The final chapter is getting prepared for us in the stars right now. I don’t know what it’s gonna look like when it’s all said and done, but i know that i want to make the best use of these last 60 days with you. I want to go knowing that i spent them making as many memories as possible, that i gave my time here a proper sendoff.

On the day of senior sunrise, i took a picture of myself to take advantage of the golden rays of sun that made everything look golden. I really like that picture, even if i don’t think it’s a particularly good one. It’s the kind of picture you take on accident: one you might not look the best in, but reveals something true about yourself. Looking back at it now, i think it shows how i thought this last year would really change something, or perhaps reveal something for me. When the school year began, I kept waiting for it to happen, to feel like a senior or even an adult. I wondered when i would actually feel grown up, even if just a little bit. When it never happened, I wondered if i was the only one who felt that kind of way. But now i know that I’m not the only one, not at all. But it’s also important to recognize how graduation and growing up are two separate things entirely. Graduation is really just the end of something that has already been happening. It’s a clear, demarcated line. One day you’re a student, and the next you aren’t. But growing up is nothing like that at all. No one gives you a piece of paper confirming that you have “grown up”, you don’t get a license or diploma. Even when I turned eighteen, i really didn’t feel like anything had changed for me at all. Maybe it will take some time, or maybe you really don’t feel it. But I guess time will tell.

In the meantime, I’ve been talking to a lot of you to figure out how we’re all feeling about this last little stretch of time, and what comes at the end of it. I was talking to a friend a couple days ago, and they said they felt afraid about what came after graduation, that they didn’t know what was going to come next for them. That’s when I realized that it doesn’t really matter whether you’ve got your next move planned out or not, we’re really all just playing it by ear. I know some people who are going to college, some of us who are enlisting, and some who are doing neither. Some of us are going to be far away, and a lot of us will lay our heads on the same pillows that we do right now. No matter what the next step for us is, i don’t think any of us have it figured out. That’s how i feel virtually everyday. Don’t feel like you have to understand what comes next right now, even if everyone and everything wants you to choose something as soon as possible.

Beyond the fact that graduation and the end of high school are on the horizon, i think that we don’t emphasize the last semester of senior year enough. Yes, we’re really only a couple weeks away from the end, and it’s true that most of our classes and activities are winding down as we get closer to the finish line. But putting too much importance on the end limits how much you are able to enjoy the present. You have time, we all have time. It might be slipping away at an alarming rate, and there might not be a lot of it left, but there is still time. There’s room for new things to take place. Our stories here aren’t over yet, and I challenge you to make the most of it. Things you’ve put off, things you were too scared to do or say, or new things that you’ve been putting off trying or attempting? Now’s the time for that. There’s a couple things that come to mind to me, things that I pushed myself to do this semester and the last, and every single one filled me with more joy than the fear that came first. So it is worth it, to try some things that are new, no matter how small.

Honestly, in this moment, I feel infinite. Only now could this kind of possibility exist. Right before the end, where nothing really matters anymore, but also when you have the most ability to take advantage of the little bit of freedom you have during the last bit of high school. I’m excited and proud of this last little stretch we’re all experiencing together. I’m going to take it all in, maybe you could give it a try too?

On a closing note, I want to let you know that it’s going to look different for everybody. There is no right way to do senior year, there is no right way to grow up right now or to be the age that we are. I’m trying to document this big thing happening for us here, but i get that not everybody feels the same way about things. Maybe high school isn’t a big deal for you, or there’s something i forgot or looked over. All i can do is keep reaching out to people, checking in on how we’re all doing and then writing it all down for you in this newsletter. A little bit more of understanding each other and of understanding and enjoying this moment together is better than not doing this at all.

I’ll be in touch soon, I promise. Much sooner than the gap we had last time. I still have so much to say to you, this is just the beginning, really. There’s a lot of cool stuff on the way, and i can’t reveal any of it yet. I can’t express how much I want to give you a little teaser, but some things are best left as surprises, and I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean soon. In the meantime, I hope you can take some things away from this post and make the most of next few ticks of the countdown. I’ll be doing the same, and looking forward to talking to you again. See you soon.

admin

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3/6/26 [73]

print:("Hello World!");

random

hey,

thanks for logging in, this is my first letter to you. i want to explain what i'm doing with this site in this post, and what this website means to me. if you're reading this, that means you peeked in your envelope already. did you get any other letters? have you started to think about what you'll put in anyone's envelope? i sure have.

that's what this project is about, pretty much. one, giant, evolving letter to my senior class. the note you took out of your envelope was signed off as "a", but that's not my real name. it doesn't really matter who i am, actually, because i'm not writing about me for this newsletter, i'm writing about us, the class of 2026. i want to talk about the things i know are all on our minds right now. graduation. going out into the "real world". growing up stuff. basically, what it means to be a senior at this point in time, in this school. i'm thinking about these things all of the time, and i'm sure you are, too. that's why i'm writing all this down, i want to document these thoughts, and hopefully some people can get something out of relating to it.

but i also want to write to just you, which is the even special(er) part of this website, the one i think you'll be the most excited about. you've probably noticed the countdown bar at the top of this page, that's there for a reason. these letters are addressed to everyone, i don't want to leave anyone out or anything (feel free to share this site with your friends), but if you got a slip in your envelope, then i'm making something unique for you as a graduation present, and i'm giving it to you when the clock hits zero. it's going to be a going away gift, and it'll be different for everyone. i don't want to reveal too much, but i think you are gonna like it. a lot. i'm working on it right now, and i hope it brings everyone plenty of smiles as we get ready to walk the stage (and probably some tears, the happy kind). i'm so excited.

okay, that's all for now. i'll be back here soon, i wasn't kidding when i said i have too much to say. have a good break everybody!

admin