Everyone always looks forward to senior year of high school. It’s supposed to be full of fun events and void of stress and work. Only graduated seniors know the actual struggle of writing essays about yourself, waiting for months to hear from schools, senioritis, and, of course, what it’s like to be able to number the days of high school left. For those of you who are lucky enough to be graduating, congratulations! For all the underclassmen out there, here’s what you can expect:
Junior Year May/June: Senior year starts whenever (and wherever) you finish junior year. You throw your arms up, may shed a tear of happiness, and assume that the next year of your life will be rainbows and sunshine. Wrong!
July/August: You may consider starting your summer assignments, or college applications. You may even start, but if you do it’s probably low effort writing that will require serious revisions. (You do get bonus points for starting early! Your friends will be super impressed and you’ll feel super accomplished)
Late August/September: Senior year starts! You gawk at how small underclassmen are and feel superior to everyone else you go to school with. You are surprised at the audacity teachers have to assign you actual work. On top of college applications? Yeah, good luck with that!
October: Kids applying early decision/action to schools grow nervous as they prepare to submit their first college applications to schools. Other students pry themselves away from weekends out, football games, and time with friends just to create their CommonApp portal. It's amazing how quickly deadlines come up!
Thanksgiving Day: Students wake up feeling ready to eat and ready to click submit. Many applicants to schools within the University of California system submit their applications hours before the deadline. (I do not recommend submitting your UC application, or any application on Thanksgiving! The site may crash, you'll feel very rushed, and you have a higher tendency to make a mistake.)
December: A select few students receive admission to their schools early! Good for them right? They can breathe a small sigh of relief, but in most cases kids who get into a school early action will still need to finish applying to other schools. The rest of the student body is rushing to complete college applications before the holiday season sets in. You can’t avoid the inevitable work. Just do it. Just camp out with snacks and earphones and ruthlessly edit your essays to perfection. The sooner you get it done, the better. I spent a good portion of my New Year’s Eve having my ACT scores being sent to schools. It was a great way to ring in 2016!
January: Second semester senior year!!!!!!!!!!!! Time to party!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right? Wrong! Again! You still have college apps, scholarship applications, and… what’s that? Homework? Tests? APs? And colleges want to see your first semester grades?
February: Pretty much everyone is questioning their motivation and struggling to get to school, do their work, and do it again the next day. Everyone is also getting more and more nervous about the impending college decisions. Super nervous.
March: College decisions start coming out! If you’re lucky, you get into your dream school (UC Berkeley, of course!) Some people receive other feedback and have to make difficult choices. It's a super sensitive period where students are acutely inquisitive of other students' acceptances, rejections, etc.
April: Everyone evaluates everyone. As decisions come out, students constantly agonize over the schools that their peers got into, or didn't. Everyone is secretly judging how and why someone got into a school. I know the feeling of watching a close friend get into my top choice, when I got a rejection. It really sucks, but it's all about perspective. April is a tough month to remember that we will all end up exactly where we’re supposed to be. Start to relax! Not too much! But a little!
May: AP season! Just kidding. AP tests roll around just in time for second semester seniors to not care. Once you commit to a school, you feel like everything in your life has finally come together. You will finally feel (almost) on top of the world! Thrown in the mix are final exams, senior prom, banquets, end of year events; it finally starts to feel like senior year.
June: Graduation! The entire senior class receives a free, invisible pair of graduation goggles. All of a sudden, people start getting really emotional about leaving the school, the people, the town, and the atmosphere for the new surprises of college or their other post high school plans.
Graduation goggles make it tough to remember the late nights, tears, arguments, drama, leaky water bottles, and failed tests. As much as everyone is fighting to get out of high school, it’s a difficult goodbye. People you’ve been with for 4 years will go their own ways. It’s difficult to imagine staying in touch with all of them, let alone your close friends. When the end comes, it’s best to wish all your peers the best of luck and hope they say the same to you! The end of senior year is also a time for reflection, and for students to be proud of all they’ve accomplished. Getting through four years of high school is a battle that only the peers in your class can begin to understand.
Even though you’ll be rushing to get away from high school, remember to take moments and enjoy them! The majority of our youth is spent in school and it’s so important we remember to be young and in the moment. Especially before college classes start! Good luck!
To rising college freshman, cheers!
To all underclassmen, bye!
