Everyone tells you when you are a freshman that the next four years are going to fly by, but you don’t understand how right they are until it’s your senior year and there are only ten days left and then you’re done with high school forever. This has been a year of lasts. Last first captains practice, last homecoming and soon, last Monday. But even though the end is sad, there is so much joy in going through it with your best friends, and being able to look back on all you have accomplished. One of the most interesting realizations for me personally have been in sports. Throughout my high school sports career, I have always looked up to and admired the older girls on the team. Now my friends and I have wondered, since we’re the oldest, how do the younger girls see us?
I can’t say that the reality of moving out in four months has really set in yet. For a while, senior year meant a lot of important deadlines and a lot of essays to be written. First, applying for college itself, then applying for scholarships, and then finally having to decide where you want to spend the next four years of your life. That decision brings up a lot of anxiety for me, but also excitement at the idea of starting something new. I think the biggest source of anxiety is that I don’t know if I will be happy at the university I choose. But the nice thing about college is that there is always the option to transfer. If you aren’t happy where you are and there is no sign of things changing, you can find a school that will be a better fit for you.
Everyone tells you that the senior slide is going to hit you hard, but I always figured it wouldn’t be that big of an issue. But they were so right. I was extremely fortunate to be able to commit to college during the middle of December. By doing so, a lot of the stress of making the decision of where to go, and the stress of waiting to hear back. However, since I committed in December, my motivation has been slowly declining throughout all of the second semester. For the first half of the second semester, we still had big assignments and important tests in my classes. That was annoying but it’s to be expected. Now though, all of the assignments feel like busywork, especially since grades have already been finalized for graduation.
There are a lot of exciting things on the horizon too, not just scary things. I’ve started buying things for my dorm room. So far I’ve bought my duvet cover, and then most of the other things I’ve accumulated were used by my sister when she was a freshman, last year. She gave me her mattress topper, her sheets, her laundry bag and more. That is one of the best parts of having a sibling who is already in college. Finding a roommate is another exciting part of going to college. However, unlike most schools, I will not have the option to find a roommate on my own. I recently filled out the roommate application survey, which will help group me with roommates that I will hopefully be compatible with. It’s a little nerve wracking to have no say over who I am going to live with, but I am staying hopeful that it will all work out in the end.
One of the best parts of senior year has been the way that our grade has really come together for all of the cliche, but fun, senior traditions. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that I wish we did more stuff together as a grade last year too. I think we can all feel the change that is coming and that feeling has really brought us together. It’s a weird feeling to know that you probably won’t ever see most of your classmates again after spending the last thirteen years of our lives together. But despite that, the memories that we have made will always be with us.
