If you told me one year ago that I would be throwing parties in my senior year, I wouldn’t have believed you for the slightest second. I would’ve also laughed at myself for calling them “Rizzfest.”

But today, I can acknowledge Rizzfest as a real thing that I created and am a part of. Rizzfest is more than just a party for the lounge kids. It’s a culmination of my high school experience that I wouldn’t have traded for anyone else’s.

In a school where students are subject to academic pressure and sky-high expectations, I was no exception. It was a natural intuition for me to take the hardest path, but with that path came sacrifices that had to be made. I lost sleep, my physical condition, but most importantly, some of my friendships and bonds I had once formed. Although I achieved academic success, I wasn’t very happy in my pursuit of such excellence.

Following the summer of my junior year, I made a promise to myself that I would live my last year of high school to its fullest, leaving no regrets whatsoever. I was going to give it my all, making genuine connections and memories that I could look back on and remember with happiness. I needed to make this year the best year of high school.

For the most part, this was true – I put in consistent effort into my relationships, constantly went out and branched out of my comfort zone. However, this also came with a sacrifice – my grades were the worst I had seen during my time at Harvard-Westlake. I was constantly made fun of by my friends for having the worst senioritis in the group, but I was content because I was having fun.

A few weeks ago, when my brother, a friend and I had the opportunity to throw a party – shamelessly known as Rizzfest – after our AP Physics exam, it wasn’t something I shied away from; I took it as another opportunity to go out of my comfort zone. The first one was such a success that we even threw a second party a week later, which went better than I possibly could have imagined. For me, they weren’t just celebrations to end the school year, they were a celebration of the cherished friendships I had worked all year to recultivate.

At a school like Harvard-Westlake, a perfect work-life balance is simultaneously impossible but utterly necessary. Academic success is just as important as social connection, and effort should be put into both equally. As I transition into college, I’m not sure how I will establish my work-life balance, as I haven’t quite yet found it in high school. However, that’s a problem for future me, and for now we can just look forward to the next Rizzfest.