This past week was my last week of senior year, and thus my last week of high school. Finishing high school is something that everyone is excited for, but no one is actually really ready for, no matter how much you say you are. I know this because I’ve always been one of those “I can’t wait to be done with high school and move on with my life” type of high school seniors. But when it came down to it, finishing high school wasn’t something I was mentally or emotionally prepared for, even if I was excited for it to happen. Here are 10 things that happen/feelings that occur during your last week of high school, which you may or may not already know about.
1. You are unbelievably stressed out.
Something that no one tells you is that the end of senior year is stressful. You still have to take finals, make sure your grades are up to par, and tie up any academic loose ends. This is already pretty difficult, but is made unbelievably more so by the fact that you have absolutely NO motivation to still be a highschool student.
2. Your parents/siblings make a bigger deal out of you leaving than you do.
Your mom will probably cry a lot at the end of the school year. I can’t even tell you how many facebook posts I saw from moms about the last school lunch they made/the last time their child pulled out of the driveway to go to school/the last time they called their kid in “sick”. They're losing you just as much as you're losing them, and it’s hitting them harder than it’s hitting you.
3. You start to get sentimental over “lasts” that don’t actually matter.
Some of these unnecessary lasts that hit me were: the last time I was late to first period, the last time I would eat a pop tart for lunch instead of the gross cafeteria food, and the last time I would go to second period english on a Wednesday. Does it make sense that I was sentimental about these things? No. Did it happen? Yes.
4. You don’t always get sentimental over the “lasts” that do matter.
I was very involved in choir in high school, and when I left the choir room for the last time after my last choir class, I could not figure out why I wasn’t sad. So many seniors around me were crying, but I couldn’t even feel sad. Sometimes the choir/band/computer room that became your home through high school doesn’t make you feel the way you expect.
5. You give and get a lot of hugs.
Everyone wants hugs at the end of senior year. Once one happens, suddenly it’s like an epidemic of hugs and everyone around you is hugging, and somehow you’re hugging a girl who’s been in your english class for three years, but whose name you don’t know. Don’t ask me why it happens, but it does.
6. Teachers give a lot of heartfelt speeches.
Your teachers have seen you learn and grow so much over your senior year. Senior teachers have a difficult job, because they have to teach you how to be a real person, and they have to keep you engaged until the very end of the year. Probably almost every teacher you have will try to inspire you/make you cry before you leave, and some might even succeed.
7. You eat a lot of pizza/other junk food.
I’m not sure why this happens, but I think your teachers want to give you a head start on the Freshman 15.
8. You realize that some of the people you’ll miss most aren’t the ones you’ve known for years.
There’s a strange thing that happens senior year, where you finally meet all the right people that should be in your life. This is a very cruel thing for life to do, because you get a very short amount of time with people you’ll probably want to spend a long amount of time with. This will hit you during your last week, when you realize how little time left you have with them.
9. People dress up for the last day of school.
Again, I don’t know why this happens, but on the last day of school I could easily pick out underclassmen from seniors just because of how everyone was dressed. Maybe everyone wants to be remembered wearing a cute sundress as opposed to sweatpants? Still, it happens.
