Senior Year Is Different
4:00 PM
Growing up I was told high school would be the best four years of my life and I should appreciate them as they will go by fast. And quickly they did pass. Would I call them “the best four years of my life”? Well, no. I cannot say that because that would mean that the rest of my life, in turn, is a downward slope, each year worse than the last. And thinking that way is no way to live. But what I can say is that senior year was the best year so far.
Senior year of high school is unique, to say the least. You walk through the doors on your first day knowing it is your last year. You shrug it off or you celebrate the fact. As the year drags on, the homework piles up and you don’t have time to enjoy much of anything. Then you realize your college applications are due soon and you have no idea what you want to do with your life or what you want to study or where you want to go to college. So you stress yourself out with a long list of deadlines and due dates. But you’re not alone. Senior year is different that way. Everyone in your class is going through it with you.
Then suddenly it’s January. You start your second and final semester of high school excited by the idea of getting out soon. You think to yourself “it can’t come soon enough”.
Before you can blink it is April. College decisions are due soon and you, ideally, know what you are going to do, or at least have an idea. You confirm enrollment to a college or university and -ahh- you can breathe. You look around at your classmates and realize that you are all in the same boat, all figuring your lives out, united by the stress of it all. The only difference is that you are all sailing in different directions. Some will go to California to pursue a career in acting. Some will you to New York for architecture. Some to another country, broadening their horizons through study abroad programs.
Senior year is different.
You go to a sporting event and realize it is the last high school sporting event you will be at. You get a senior picture taken with everyone in your graduating class. You walk through the halls on your very last day and realize that this is it. You will never again pass those couples in every corner. You will never again pass the group of boys and their impromptu rap battles in the middle of the hall. And maybe this is cause for celebration. But the word you will hear constantly during the week of graduation describes it pretty well – it’s bittersweet.
As you leave each classroom, you say goodbye to your teachers and classmates, but unlike the years before, for most this is “bye forever” (two words that were a running joke in my school).
On graduation day, you walk into the school for the last time and look around at the rest of the senior class. Inevitably by this point you all have grown closer than ever before, united by the prospect of the end and the freedoms thereof.
There is something about the end of senior year. Something liberating and eye opening. People are no longer afraid of being themselves. I watched as people began to actively pursue their music dreams, or their photography goals, or their acting careers. I watched as writers shared their writing, leaders began leading, singers started singing, and composers shared the compositions they have worked on for years. I watched people share who they have always been and what they have always done but had kept hidden. And that is the best part of senior year. I don’t know what made people open up. Maybe it was the idea that after high school there is no hiding it. Or maybe it was because everyone knew that after that year, we will never see most of these people again. Whatever it was, I am glad it happened.
As I sat in the gymnasium, surrounded by the people I have known since kindergarten, all dressed in matching caps and gowns, I took it all in. Never again would this happen. This is the moment where everything changes. This is not the end. This is the beginning of the rest of our lives.
Our principal then stood up, just before we were to line up and walk to the football stadium for the ceremony. He told us to look up and look around at the families and friends standing in the bleachers as we walk toward our seats. He told us to take it all in, soak up the moment, and recognize the pride and achievement being recognized on that day. And I will never forget that.
So senior year is different. If for you it hasn’t yet begun, I suggest you take nothing for granted, love every moment, and embrace positivity. But most of all, do not be afraid to be yourself, the rest will come naturally.
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