Senior year was my favorite year of High School and I mean that. I really did not have the best overall experience in High School but I did have a pretty great Senior year. Senior year is about having fun. Yeah you are still in school, but it is totally different.
College Apps are a fact of life and you have to do them. Personally, I think that this is the time where you really need to take a good look in the mirror and narrow your choices. You probably do not see yourself at all 20 of the schools you are thinking of applying to. Really think about who you are and where you think you will fit into best. Start with big school vs small school and you already have cut the task in half. Personally, I only applied to 3 schools and two of them were my safety. If you only have a small amount of schools to apply to, you can really put your mind to the Apps and do a through job. By the time you are on essay 15 you really do not give a crap anymore and its harder to write the essays. I'm not saying only pick 3 schools, but I would recommend trying to stay below 10.
School is still important first semester but not like junior year. Keep your grades up but don't over extend yourself. As the year goes on, even your AP teachers will go easier on you. I know you prob don't believe that now but it is so true. I had one teacher who let us off the hook if we were late and brought her coffee. There was also that one time the principal approved the whole senior class to cut the day and have a BBQ in the park. Like when people say senior year is a joke, it is but its not.
I'm not going to tell you not to skip class some days because it is not realistic. Everyone calls in sick once in a while when they are not actually sick. To that end, don't just ditch class. The last thing you need is to find out that you have skipped so many classes that you are not going to get credit for something required and that you can not graduate. It sounds stupid, like why would you loose track of the important credit classes, but when you skip once it becomes a habit and you loose track. There was someone in my grade who almost fell into this hole and it is just not worth it. All schools have different attendance policies and different consequences but I am sure that they all report late graduation to the college you will be attending as it is part of your record. You really don't want to be getting the boot before you even start do you? PS If your school does school sponsored cut days...don't show up. Its worth it.
If you have spirit week, go all out. Now, your not talking to Miss Ra Ra cheerleader. However, Spirit week is SO fun, especially if you are a Senior. My class had won as Juniors so we put so much effort into winning again because we would be the first class to do that in the history of my High School. How important is it really? Its not, but as you get closer to graduation you will begin to cherish all of the memories you have with your High School friends and spirit week is just an opportunity to make more of these memories. For those of you who do not know what spirit week is, it is kind of like color war but so much better.
Senior prom. I really do not want to go into detail here because I have a whole annual series called The Prom Problem where I go into detail about the event. So, you can just scroll back and check out those posts if you are looking for information about Prom.
Prank week. Good old prank week. Honestly, my grade could not come up with decent pranks. We chicken nuggetted the Juniors cars (didn't participate in this one like EW). And we set out phones to go off at 2:14 since we were the class of 2014. If you can come up with a kick ass prank, do it. But with that said, don't vandalize anything or do anything dangerous. One year, the seniors totally trashed the computer lab and cost the school thousands of dollars in damage control. Its just not the right thing to do. Like it or not, the school is public property and it did help you become who you are. Even if you hate the place, you should have enough decency not to trash it. Do harmless pranks by all means, but do not act like wild animals.
Lets talk Senior trip. I personally did not go on my senior trip because it was a tone of money and I just could not justify spending that kind of money when I am going to college. With that said, my school was supper nice to offer the opportunity to go to Disney World for a week. Some schools do different things for the trip. I think that it is a good bonding experience if you can afford the trip or the trip isn't too industrious. With that said, there is a large amount of substance abuse that goes on during these trips. Its High School. Its not good but it happens. I'm just mentioning it because if that is something that bothers you, you may want to take that into consideration when deciding whether or not to go.
On the feelings of graduation there are just so many. You expect graduation to feel like a relief. Like the best day of your life. Like a huge weight has been lifted off of your shoulder. You expect to be over the moon happy...but your not. Why? Because the realization that you may never see the kids that have had your back for 18 years ever again. And its the truth. By the time senior summer is over, you already know which friends are going to last and which friends are not. Let me tell you, it sucks spending the whole year strengthening your friend ships with people just to loose them all. In my senior year, my group of five friends go so much closer. Have we talked since graduation? Nope. But that is life. Friends come and go. Its just the unsettling feeling that you know it is going to happen and that there is nothing you can do to stop it that makes you feel sad. God I wish I had a better descriptive word for it but honestly, sad is the best way to describe it I think.
This post was the hardest for me to write because Senior year is just so hard to put into words. It is a fabulous year I can assure you of that. And it goes by in an instant. Im leaving for college in three days and it feels like I was just a junior yesterday and that senior year never happened. Maybe it was just a dream. But its wasn't. I can't explain. All I can say for sure is that you are about to experience it and that you should soak up every second of it. Before you know it, you will be me...about to leave for college wondering where the time went.
xoxoxo
College Apps are a fact of life and you have to do them. Personally, I think that this is the time where you really need to take a good look in the mirror and narrow your choices. You probably do not see yourself at all 20 of the schools you are thinking of applying to. Really think about who you are and where you think you will fit into best. Start with big school vs small school and you already have cut the task in half. Personally, I only applied to 3 schools and two of them were my safety. If you only have a small amount of schools to apply to, you can really put your mind to the Apps and do a through job. By the time you are on essay 15 you really do not give a crap anymore and its harder to write the essays. I'm not saying only pick 3 schools, but I would recommend trying to stay below 10.
School is still important first semester but not like junior year. Keep your grades up but don't over extend yourself. As the year goes on, even your AP teachers will go easier on you. I know you prob don't believe that now but it is so true. I had one teacher who let us off the hook if we were late and brought her coffee. There was also that one time the principal approved the whole senior class to cut the day and have a BBQ in the park. Like when people say senior year is a joke, it is but its not.
I'm not going to tell you not to skip class some days because it is not realistic. Everyone calls in sick once in a while when they are not actually sick. To that end, don't just ditch class. The last thing you need is to find out that you have skipped so many classes that you are not going to get credit for something required and that you can not graduate. It sounds stupid, like why would you loose track of the important credit classes, but when you skip once it becomes a habit and you loose track. There was someone in my grade who almost fell into this hole and it is just not worth it. All schools have different attendance policies and different consequences but I am sure that they all report late graduation to the college you will be attending as it is part of your record. You really don't want to be getting the boot before you even start do you? PS If your school does school sponsored cut days...don't show up. Its worth it.
If you have spirit week, go all out. Now, your not talking to Miss Ra Ra cheerleader. However, Spirit week is SO fun, especially if you are a Senior. My class had won as Juniors so we put so much effort into winning again because we would be the first class to do that in the history of my High School. How important is it really? Its not, but as you get closer to graduation you will begin to cherish all of the memories you have with your High School friends and spirit week is just an opportunity to make more of these memories. For those of you who do not know what spirit week is, it is kind of like color war but so much better.
Senior prom. I really do not want to go into detail here because I have a whole annual series called The Prom Problem where I go into detail about the event. So, you can just scroll back and check out those posts if you are looking for information about Prom.
Prank week. Good old prank week. Honestly, my grade could not come up with decent pranks. We chicken nuggetted the Juniors cars (didn't participate in this one like EW). And we set out phones to go off at 2:14 since we were the class of 2014. If you can come up with a kick ass prank, do it. But with that said, don't vandalize anything or do anything dangerous. One year, the seniors totally trashed the computer lab and cost the school thousands of dollars in damage control. Its just not the right thing to do. Like it or not, the school is public property and it did help you become who you are. Even if you hate the place, you should have enough decency not to trash it. Do harmless pranks by all means, but do not act like wild animals.
Lets talk Senior trip. I personally did not go on my senior trip because it was a tone of money and I just could not justify spending that kind of money when I am going to college. With that said, my school was supper nice to offer the opportunity to go to Disney World for a week. Some schools do different things for the trip. I think that it is a good bonding experience if you can afford the trip or the trip isn't too industrious. With that said, there is a large amount of substance abuse that goes on during these trips. Its High School. Its not good but it happens. I'm just mentioning it because if that is something that bothers you, you may want to take that into consideration when deciding whether or not to go.
On the feelings of graduation there are just so many. You expect graduation to feel like a relief. Like the best day of your life. Like a huge weight has been lifted off of your shoulder. You expect to be over the moon happy...but your not. Why? Because the realization that you may never see the kids that have had your back for 18 years ever again. And its the truth. By the time senior summer is over, you already know which friends are going to last and which friends are not. Let me tell you, it sucks spending the whole year strengthening your friend ships with people just to loose them all. In my senior year, my group of five friends go so much closer. Have we talked since graduation? Nope. But that is life. Friends come and go. Its just the unsettling feeling that you know it is going to happen and that there is nothing you can do to stop it that makes you feel sad. God I wish I had a better descriptive word for it but honestly, sad is the best way to describe it I think.
This post was the hardest for me to write because Senior year is just so hard to put into words. It is a fabulous year I can assure you of that. And it goes by in an instant. Im leaving for college in three days and it feels like I was just a junior yesterday and that senior year never happened. Maybe it was just a dream. But its wasn't. I can't explain. All I can say for sure is that you are about to experience it and that you should soak up every second of it. Before you know it, you will be me...about to leave for college wondering where the time went.
xoxoxo
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