Many people are able to recount their Freshman year of high school; the fear they felt walking through the halls, the determination they held in their mind for doing well on every last assignment, and the awkwardness they never failed to show during this year. However, this doesn’t last forever. After three short years of being underclassman in high school, students morph into very different people: seniors.
Firstly, the first day of school. For freshman, this is an intimidating day, but exciting at the same time. They spend the entire week before preparing themselves for this time by planning out outfits, attending orientations, worrying about where to sit in the cafeteria, and which teachers assign the most homework. They finally arrive at school (usually by bus), and have to navigate their way through the crowds of giant upperclassmen. They have to face the reality of having a bottom locker… on the third floor.
Once they accept that they will be climbing up 8,000 stairs each morning, they become much more comfortable with the school as a whole. Even after this, they spend the rest of the year walking around like intimidated puppies. For seniors, this is a whole other kind of experience. They roll out of bed, and start thinking about what they should wear for the first time. They decide a nice shirt with jeans will suffice, and reflect back on freshman year when they had a nice dress picked out a month ahead of time.
On the way out the door, a senior will pick up their backpack and notice it is especially light, then suddenly remember that they forgot to buy folders and notebooks for the year ahead, despite their mother’s nagging. Before they make it to their car, their parents stop them and force them to take the annual picture. For the first time, the student will not see this as an exciting moment, but will only agree to do so because of the tears in their mother’s eyes because this is the last first day of school picture for the album. They make it to school with a couple minutes to spare, hear the same speeches for the thousandth time, and barely make it through the day without falling asleep. Where the freshman will find new and exciting things around every corner, the senior will find himself bored of everything in the school, struggling to find reason to be interested.
When a freshman comes home from school in the afternoon, there will probably be a good amount of motivation to sit down and start some homework, because it is very important to them that they receive straight A’s and get high honors to complete the trimester. They will complete everything on time, if not early, and work to impress their parents, who have very high expectations of them. The exams will come around and they will study for hours each day leading up to them, stopping for a couple of snack breaks, but keeping their focus on the dreadful exams that they have yet to experience. They hear myths of how they will go, but have little hope for their grades.
Since all of the studying pays off, they will usually get very good grades on the tests, and be pleased with the results. A senior is very different in these regards, and it is very rare that you will see a senior actually doing homework outside of school. Usually, the backpack is left in the car overnight and during the weekends, and all homework is completed in between classes, in the morning, or during a free period. They will realize that exams are approaching a few days before, and the amount of studying they do will depend on the grade in the class. They will take more time calculating what they need to get on the exam to pass the class than they will actually studying (Thanks, RogerHub). Because of the confidence stored in their mind from freshman year exams, they feel as though they don’t need to study anymore, and even if they fail, they will accept it and move on.
Freshman and Seniors may seem very similar from the original view, since they are both high school students trying to pass their classes, but they could not be any more different. When looking at the year as a whole, seniors don’t have nearly as much changing to complete by June. As a senior might look back at their freshman self and cringe, it is important to note that this was all crucial to the process of becoming a senior.
