Editor’s Note: Senior goodbyes are student pieces that reflect on their past years in high school. These pieces take very different perspectives and the prompt was meant to be vague to inspire creativity. 

There is only one person who has been dealt a royal flush in the poker game of life: Tom Brady. To my knowledge, he is the only one. If Tom has some big secret flaw, I have yet to hear about it. He has won five Super Bowls, married a real-life supermodel, and he’s not an ugly dude.

Now the rest of us sit at the poker table and are lucky if we get a pair. Everyone but Tom Brady, at some point in their life, has looked down at their hand of cards and wondered how they’re going to turn a two of clubs, a four of hearts, a jack of diamonds, and an eight of spades into a four of a kind. Then comes the best part of poker: your poker face. A poker face is just a fancy word for the “I got nothin’ going for me” face and is usually followed by the “let’s pretend like I do have somethin’ going for me” face.

At the beginning of my senior year, I was looking down at my hand and saw four cards that were nowhere close to a four of a kind, much less a pair. Let me tell you, I am a terrible liar with an even worse poker face.

So here I am in my senior year, which is supposed to be the best year of all, with all my cards jumbled up, some upside down, others are falling on the floor, and I have a haircut that looks like a 80s punk rocker. Perfect.

But I am thankful for my punk-rocker hair-do. I really am. Surprised? Me too.

Anyone who knew me well, knew that my senior year was anything but the best, but I am not here to throw a pity party. This year was great for me. Sometimes I think it’s good to be unsure and a little lost. For those who are having a not-so-great time in their life, be grateful for it. I learned so many things about myself, my flaws, and my goals.

Some of the greatest things in life are bad haircuts, lost friendships, and seas of confusion. The best news of all is that a miserable hand of cards in the poker game of life is a wonderful gift.

I wouldn’t change any part of my high school experience. If I had the power to re-do my high school years, I would allow every lost friendship, breakup, bad grade, stress-filled night, family feud, and student-teacher conflict because it allowed me to become the person I am today. It was worth it all.

There will always be not-so-great parts of life, but it all depends on the way you handle them. Don’t spend your high school career wishing things were different, because you will miss the incandescence of the present.

I have learned this year to have confidence in every part of life. God has called us to be believers in whatever situation we are in. That means we are called to be confident not just in the times that we are sure, but especially in the times that we are lost.

What I am trying to say is that not everything will work out the way you wanted or expected, but sometimes, it is better that way.

So be thankful. Be thankful for all the random cards you have. You don’t always have to be dealt a four of kind.