Senior year is the last step before graduation, and it doesn’t only show the progress in your education, but the progress of you as a person. It reflects the journey you have gone through, the memories you have made, and closes one chapter while you begin your next.
“High school is a difficult period because we are in such a transitional era, always changing and growing,” senior Loretta Rodrigez Copola explained.
Most seniors try to take in all that is around them since it is their last year in high school. Others are just ready to walk across this stage of life and start another chapter.
”I feel relieved and proud of finishing [my] high school career, I am also proud of overcoming challenges, I am ready to thrive in college,” said senior Santiago Gonzalez Hoffman.
While there are many students that continue to work hard during their senior year, there are those that struggle with getting the motivation to push through to graduation. This is well known as “Senioritis”. According to Wikipedia, senioritis is the “colloquial name for the decreased motivation toward education felt by students who are nearing the end of their high school, college, or graduate careers, or the end of a school year in general.”
Many seniors feel “done” since they have already been accepted into their dream colleges, or have plans after graduation. They decide it’s not worth it to show up to school or to try hard in classes. They think “it’s all over” and “college already wants me” -why should I keep trying?
Seniors are anxious for prom, their graduation ceremony, and for their last day of school: to walk out of the doors for their very last time, saying goodbye to what had essentially been their second home for the last four years of their lives.
“Enjoy your last semester of high school events and make good memories with your high school friends” Julie Emmons, a high school counselor suggests.
There are many difficult parts of leaving, like saying goodbye to staff that have impacted your life in so many ways and, probably the hardest thing of all, saying goodbye to friends and family. It is time to be ready to step out of your comfort zones and be prepared to step into the unknown.
”Don’t be against trying new things and branching out, people are so used to the bubble of The Woodlands,” said TWHS college and career counselor Kayla Saint-Romain.
Whether you’re headed to further pursue your education at college, head straight to the workforce, devote yourself to the military, or take a gap year for yourself, make these last couple months matter and don’t give in to this epidemic.
