Senior year. Two words that all high schoolers across the country are both excited and overwhelmed by. So many decisions as well as enjoyable memories will be made, and that busy schedule you thought you had before is now becoming even busier. Every adult that knows you're a senior is almost constantly bombarding you with those big life questions that you don't even begin to know the answer to, so you just smile sheepishly and tell them that you're not sure and that there's so many options to choose from. Not everyone is lucky enough to be that person who has known they wanted to be a doctor since they were 9 years old. When I was a kid, all I ever dreamed of being was an ice cream truck driver, so my plans from childhood have definitely changed. So to all those people out there like me, don't worry, you're not the only one. And if you've got it all together you may still be realizing some of these things that I have before embarking on the long, winding road that is your 12th grade year.
1. After this year I will never see around 95% of my graduating class.
2. How am I supposed to get into college and not fail high school at the same time?
As you're trying to fit in all those AP classes to bring up your GPA, you also have to write essays, SO MANY ESSAYS. College essays, homework essays, scholarship essays, all on top of your homework due in all of your other classes. Combine this with trying to be in every club and sport you can be in to make yourself involved in school activities, and BAM! Congratulations, you are now officially overwhelmed and coffee is now your new best friend.
3. Can I really get through senioritis for the fourth year in a row?
I think I speak for many people when I say that I've pretty much had senioritis since freshman year. Every year you get to watch people finally leave school knowing that you still have X amount of years left to go, and you're already so done with the idea of school that it's not even funny. I've done homework in the car on the way to school, in homeroom during the moment of silence and even in the class before the period that it is due. So at least as a senior I have now made it to when senioritis is actually supposed to happen.
4. How am I supposed to know what I want to do with my life if I've never actually done it?
Not everyone has a passion that they know they would love to do for the next 30+ years of their life. Plus, there are so many jobs out there that many of us don't even realize exist. Yet somehow as 17 year olds, we are supposed to find a college with a major that we want, even when we have no clue if it will actually interest us. A lot of things sound good on paper, but you can't truly know if you like something until you've experienced it, and by then it seems almost too late to change your mind.
5. Next year is basically freshman year all over again.
You're finally a senior and you've got everything figured out at school. Not a bit of nervousness because you're at the top of the school. Until you realize that next year you go back to being the clueless freshman again that can't find their class. Except now you have a whole campus to get lost in instead of a single building. And instead of not knowing 800 people, you won't know 8000 of them.
So if you've ever thought any of these things, you're not alone. It might be a hard year ahead, but a ton of people have succeeded in it before us. Sometimes we will be on top of things, and other times we will be drowning in work. That's just the way life works, not only in school but throughout everything that you do. You just have to remember that at some point in everyone's life they're the bug, and at some point they're the windshield.
