As I was reading “The Last First Day,” by Julia Lee, I felt a familiar sensation, as if I was Julia on that first day of her last year. The short piece describes the bittersweet feeling of having to enter her last year of a school she has grown to love. It starts off with a short detailed description of Brooklyn. Then, it turns into the description of her first day of eighth grade, the bittersweetness of it all. She describes how she greets her friends and how they all march into the school, ready to take on the year.
Although I am in her position, in the same grade and in the same school, I feel that anyone, no matter who they are or where they’re from, can relate to this piece of writing in some way. Her use of imagery allows the reader to be in her shoes. As I was reading, I felt that hot July, the sprinklers, and the familiar sensation of seeing your friends after the summer. As she had stated, “Something had changed, though, and we all grew quiet as we walked up the tall marble steps to greet our final year. I know I took a mental snapshot of this last first time I would walk, arm in arm with my friends, through our school’s doors.” As I read these final sentences, I felt the recognition, as if I was the one to grow quiet and walk up those stairs. This memoir has let me realize that this was the beginning of the end and that the future is ahead of all of us, and for that I am grateful.