Seniors celebrated their last day of school May 29, closing out their four years of secondary education at Park. From starting the morning off with parking lot pranks to closing out with a class-wide barbecue, student-led traditions commemorate the accomplishments of the graduating class while celebrating the impact they’ve made in their time at Park. Alongside the goodbyes that seniors say upon graduation, the class of 2026 looks ahead to their bright futures beyond high school.
Graduating seniors celebrated the entirety of their education at Park by visiting their elementary schools and walking through the halls wearing a graduation cap and gown. Senior Lee Cadigan said the visit to their elementary school felt sentimental, going back to the beginning of their education. They said the walk served as a closing of that primary chapter of their life.
“The elementary walks are really special because they bring you back to where it all began and remind you of your aspirations from back then,” Cadigan said. “That’s really good closure from that time period, ending your whole primary and secondary education.”
Another annual tradition for the graduating class on the last day is for each senior to paint their handprint on a mural outside the school. A group of students prepared the mural the day before with a symbol for graduation and growing up. This year, the mural showcased an oriole singing, with the words “Pretty little birds” written above. Assistant principal Evelyn Lashley said preparing the mural was a big task in preparation for the last day of school for seniors. She said she saw different students come together to create the mural for all seniors to be part of the next day.
“A huge project was the mural,” Lashley said. “We were here from around 2:30 to 7:30 painting the senior mural, with people from different friend groups that all came together to make a huge project happen. Now, everybody else can add their handprints.”
Every year, the graduating class sets up multiple pranks to mess with the underclassmen at Park. On their last day, seniors arrive early to the parking lot to park sideways and diagonally to block underclassmen from parking in their spots. According to senior Asa Bombsta, parking badly in the morning is a way that the graduating class unites as a community. She said throughout the day, seniors spend time together, feeling connected as a class.
“The seniors all come together with all of us coming early in the morning to do the bad parking and the senior prank,” Bombsta said. “We’re all hanging out, having a barbecue and painting the wall together as a community. We spend the whole last day together.”
Lashley said the focus this year for the last day for seniors was to have more organization in the traditions and celebrations. She said some of the ideas to include all seniors and have more structure in the day came from senior students themselves, focused on getting everyone involved and feeling celebrated.
“This year, our goal was to make the last day more structured and celebratory,” Lashley said. “In the past, things like wall painting were after-school and just student-led. The elementary walks were on the Wednesday before (the last day) in the past, so this year we tried to think of how to make those things make the last day feel really fun. The idea to have everyone do the handprints at the barbecue was the seniors who came to me with this vision to make sure everybody gets represented.”
At the start of the school year, seniors participate in an organized sunrise, where they watch the sun come up together at the stadium. At the end of the year, they close with a sunset, watching the sun go down as a group. These traditions embrace the significance of senior year, connecting the start to the end. According to Cadigan, these traditions are unifying for seniors, where they can experience the connection and reflection that comes with the end of high school.
“We do the senior sunrise at the beginning of the year and the senior sunset at the end,” Cadigan said. “There are these events where we can all be together and eat, talk and enjoy. It all feels very cyclical and it really carries through towards the end of the year. The traditions really help us connect with each other and reflect on our past and our future.”
Through all of the fun of the last day of school for seniors, many use the day to say goodbye to teachers and the parts of Park that have made an impact on them in their last 4 years. Bombsta said the end has nuanced feelings, both heartfelt about the days being left behind and optimistic about the future days to come.
“It’s exciting to be ending and graduating,” Bombsta said. “It’s a little sentimental, but I’m feeling excited to go and looking forward to college. We’re saying a lot of goodbyes today, but in a good way. We’re saying goodbye and thank you to everyone who we’ve been with for the last couple of years.”
