May 30 marked the final school day for Park’s class of 2025. Throughout this bittersweet day, seniors said their goodbyes by painting a wall with a tree made up of their handprints, decorating cars and using Park’s tennis courts and parking lot to come together as a community.
Senior counselor Heidi Cosgrove said after many years of working at Park, she enjoys witnessing the senior class come together to mess around joyfully and safely. She said the switch from water balloons to wall painting was necessary because of the damage it had caused in past years.
“I’ve been here for 20-plus years, and there is always the fun of seniors going out with some fun traditions and ‘pranks.’ When I first started here, it was the water balloons, (and) people got hurt. The mess that it left was just horrible for our custodians and for the birds that were trying to eat (water balloons) too,” Cosgrove said. “For my seniors out there, I’m loving them, and it’s fun to watch them have fun and paint the wall. I just went out and got some pictures, and it’s just so great and beautiful and I love that final community that they will have as kids, as students.”
Senior Kairya Sharif said she enjoyed decorating her car and putting a handprint on the wall. According to her, although she missed the breakfast spread, she met up with friends and got dressed up in the tropical theme of the day to celebrate her last day.
“Painting our cars, like, writing on our cars (was my favorite part). Also, the paint on the wall thing was actually really cute,” Sharif said. “We woke up kind of late. We were supposed to go to the breakfast thing that they were holding but we came too late. Instead, we met up with all our friends. We got these (tropical clothes and accessories) too.”
According to senior Josh Fink, his last day of school was filled with memorable traditions. He said one of his favorite traditions of the year was the senior sunrise and coming together on the last day because it brought a sense of community.
“This whole day has been pretty fun, just like the last-day stuff and all the last day traditions. But also, I really like senior sunrise at the start of the year, and coming together at the start and the end,” Fink said. “There’s a good sense of bringing the class together, and showing where everyone is and where they’re gonna be.”
According to Sharif, participating in the last day of school senior traditions reminds her of when her relatives participated years back. She said she has looked forward to this day for a while and appreciates coming together as a grade.
“It kind of feels surreal, because I remember my cousin got to (participate in the traditions), and I was kind of jealous. I couldn’t wait to do it myself,” Sharif said. “(Senior traditions) make everyone come together. Like, on the last day, you see all your friends and everybody who you went to school with which is cool.”
Cosgrove said the school’s role in supporting seniors on the last day of school is to maintain a safe environment. She said safety is not something Park’s administration takes lightly, but that harmless fun is acceptable and exciting for the class’s send-off.
“I know our principals and our assistant principals are responsible for safety. They are responsible for making sure kids are safe, that there’s no destruction, and that’s a heavy responsibility,” Cosgrove said. “From my standpoint as a counselor, it’s absolutely important to not be like, ‘Oh, don’t worry about your safety today. Don’t worry about if the school gets destroyed, or you know, anything like that.’ But I think there’s something to be said when seniors can say, ‘we are having some good clean fun’.”
Fink said they planned their last day of school activities by voting on an Instagram account seniors created. He said these traditions should be continued because they are important for ending the year off on a positive note.
“There was an Instagram page, and they had all of the seniors follow it and then put stuff on the story, where people could vote on what we wanted to do,” Fink said. “(Keeping senior traditions going is important) because it’s special. It’s a special thing for the seniors to look forward to, and it’s special for closing out the year on a fun and solid note.”
Cosgrove said she encourages future seniors to keep the impact of their ‘fun’ in mind and to alert the school as much in advance as possible to avoid conflict.
“I think always making sure like ‘Okay, if what we’re planning causes any safety issues or potential unintended destruction’, you are being mindful of that,” Cosgrove said. “Part of the fun is the element of surprise. That’s the fun part, but maybe the administration would want to know a little bit prior or something. I can’t speak for them, but it’s a balance of the element of surprise while being safe, respectful and courteous to you and the school.”
