I wish I could tell you. I wish I had the words to explain how senior year is. How it is the one of the best if not the best year of high school you will get. Right now you probably cannot wait to start next year—to finally be on top and feel like you can do whatever you want. However, I also wish that I could explain that it is the beginning of change. The beginning of becoming an adult. You have to start applying to college and begin thinking about what you want to major in. All of the sudden every adult you meet is going to ask you about where you are going to go to college. Every single time they see you. Don't blame them or get annoyed with them. It is just that college is one of the first actual adult decisions that you will have to make. They are curious about where you will end up. College will ultimately be a part of your next four years of life. Senior year is somewhat of a limbo between the two— the beginning of change.
As a part of applying to college you will be asked to write a reflection essay of some sort and in the process you will decide what the big moments in your life have been—what moments have truly shaped you as a person. You will be forced to adhere to deadlines which actually matter. You can't procrastinate college applications and expect favorable outcomes. That is just not how it works. Slowly but surely your mind shifts to thinking toward the future. It is one of the reasons senioritis hits so hard. It is hard to think about doing work for high school when your mind has already shifted towards college.
As a result of all of these decisions you will start to feel older. You will feel like there is almost a lifetime between you and the year below you. That is just how it ends up happening. Soak up every last—the last sports game and the last memories spent with friends and family before next year. Don't choose your friends over your family every time. Make a point to be home for family dinners, and then go spend time with your friends. Because in a year, everything will change again. You will be leaving for college and leaving the familiar. You will grow again in ways that you cannot now fathom. Your friendships will change. You will have to work harder to maintain them and you will no longer live in the same town as al of them. You will make different friends too. Things will never truly be the same as they are now when you are in high school, so soak up the present.
Enjoy feeling as if you are on top of the world, but do not let it go to your head. Embrace the changes as they come. Enjoy your last year without having true adult responsibilities and make the most of your senior year. As you begin to change, realize that those changes are preparing you to become a college student, an adult, and to move on to your next phase of life. Just don't forget to live in the present an enjoy where you are. You only get one senior year. Enjoy it while it lasts because it will be over before you know it.
