Ah, senior year. You can’t wait for it. You’ve been waiting for it since the day you walked through those big high school doors the first day of freshman year. Being a senior means being at the top. It means laughing at freshmen who struggle to open their lockers. It means getting to stand at the front of the bleachers for football games because you have “seniority”. Most of all, it means not being able to worry about school as much as you had to in previous years. Yes, senior year has so many advantages and joys. However, it isn’t just a cookie-cutter year like many people expect it to be.

Senior year is the time for enjoying bittersweet endings and new beginnings. At this point, you have completed the courses you need for college. You don’t even care if you miss a simple homework assignment. A simple, relaxed time that students look forward to is the prime senior year lifestyle. Now, if only it was that easy. Those missed homework assignments and laziness ends up catching up to you. You lay on your bed binge-watching Netflix the week of exams because who cares? It’s senior year, right? No. You’ll come to your senses the night before the big test and think, “Wait, I actually want to get into college.” Cramming your studies with endless nights staying up past midnight is the epitome of senior year. Laziness then leads to realization which leads to panic attacks. Senior year is that time in your high school career that creeps up on you. You hit an all-time low motivation because you’re simply done with high school and done with pointless assignments.

After those few times of panic and stress you will encompass senior year, you’ll go back to understanding why senior year is actually amazing as well. It is finally time to show all of the work you’ve done to universities. It is time to truly appreciate the moments you spend with your friends and family which make those moments even more bittersweet. It is time to walk through the halls and think “I am at the top.” You get the long lunches, the praise at the football games, and the role of being looked up to by the underclassmen. Senior year allows you to mold yourself into who you truly want to be before you go into the world as independent as ever. It may be terrifying, but it sure is exciting.

Senior year has its highs and its lows. There may be times where you want to not do a single piece of work and scream how you want to simply go to an online college (trust me, I’ve done it.). There may be time where college applications invade your life and seem like they are never going to end. There may even be times where you simply do not like being so close to living on your own. However, it is those moments that allow the highs of senior year to be appreciated just a little bit more.