My name is Zachary Heinis and I am a junior here at Holy Family.

Some of you know me as Zac, but most of you know me as “that strange kid who always wears the same snowman sweatshirt even if it isn’t Winter”.  As some of you know already, I will not be attending Holy Family High School next year.  My family and I are moving down to Florida.

While this will be a huge change, it isn’t a surprise as I’ve known since the summer.

Being able to attend Holy Family for three years has been such an amazing opportunity. From retreats like Kairos to everyday school life, every day has brought new memories that will be hard to forget. I focused on trying to get to know new people this year at Holy Family because there is so much more to everyone’s lives than meets the eye. The common (and sometimes overused phrase) “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” has a whole new meaning for me when it comes to people.

This year has been much different than previous years for me.

In previous years there have been things I haven’t done because I didn’t want to screw up or risk failure or embarrassment. However, between knowing that this was my last year here, and being able to self-reflect at Kairos, I decided to make this year different.

Every day when I got to school, I reminded myself to not leave any regrets behind. By holding myself to this, I made choices that I probably wouldn’t have made otherwise, some of these led to failures, but most were incredibly rewarding. I will carry this mindset with me for the rest of my life, because the one thing that can haunt any of us, are the choices we wished we made but never did; our regrets.

I’d like to thank all the teachers I’ve had for helping to push me to become a better version of myself. All of us can always improve and better ourselves, for there is always room to grow, but each step we take in bettering ourselves allows us to understand the world in a different light.

For those that don’t know, none of my classmates from middle school came with me to Holy Family. I’d like to thank the friends I’ve made at this school for helping me to adjust to a new school environment where I knew nobody.

Good luck to all next year at Holy Family and have a great summer!