“Holy moly.”
That was junior Hannah Myers' reaction after opening the envelope that revealed her acceptance into High Point University — along with a full-ride scholarship..
“I immediately just burst into tears,” Hannah said.
Before opening the envelope, Hannah spent the day touring the college and described it as “too good to be true,” due to High Point’s extravagant campus and dorms.
Located in High Point, North Carolina, HPU offers a steakhouse, a hibachi restaurant and a Mediterranean restaurant. According to Hannah, every building “kind of looks like the White House.”
Now, Hannah gets the privilege of living and learning in these White House-esque buildings.
As a junior touring HPU, Hannah stood out in a room filled with the class of 2026. Myers’s family thought of this as a disadvantage, yet it turned out to make Hannah all the more interesting to colleges.
"I was worried her not having a year's worth of grades would make it harder for her to get into college,” Hannah's mother, Nikki Myers, said. “I was surprised when she got into almost every college she applied to.”
Hannah's decision to graduate early came down to a couple of factors.
Throughout high school, Hannah was constantly in the dance studio. Every night, after dancing for six hours, Hannah would get home and start her homework at 10:30 p.m.
“It was always a struggle to keep up with other things,” Hannah said. “And I didn’t have a social life outside of dance.”
The final factor that pushed Hannah to toss the graduation cap early is when she learned about damaging rumors that were being spread behind her back.
“I’m just done,” Hannah said. “I don't want to listen to gossip about myself that isn’t true.”
Even though Hannah is excited to leave behind the people spreading gossip, she is going to have some tough goodbyes to make.
When Hannah told her friend junior Caroline Hoffman she was graduating early, Caroline didn’t believe her.
“At first, I thought she was joking,” Caroline said. “I was so sad because she doesn’t get to have a senior year with me, and we are missing out on so much.”
For Hannah, friends have made leaving hard, but burnout and drama have made it easy to say goodbye. Some would think graduating junior year is difficult — Hannah merely shrugs it off.
“Well,” Hannah said. “Public school isn’t too hard.”
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