We’re normally chugging at the curriculum to fit every last bit of information in before the AP test, but today we have one of our work days. 

Senior Brody Brazill, who has perfect attendance, said he thought people were joking about Senior Skip Day, so he did not even think about participating. 

“I’m nice like that. I genuinely thought everyone was joking about Senior Skip Day because teachers were saying a cold was going around,” Brazill said. 

Brazill knew it was going to be a laid-back school day. 

“My day has been good so far. It hasn’t been eventful. Teachers haven’t done much because they expected students to miss,” he said. 

Just like other students, Brazill said he is going to keep up on his schoolwork today.

My classmates and I were aware of the difficulty of last night’s homework problems, so teacher Beth Giles gave us some time to work on our homework. Students worked with each other to reason out problems from our book. 

We continued to work on our homework problems for another 30 minutes and then watched an interesting video about computer chips, their production, and the efforts to have more chip manufacturing happen in America.

Giles looks out for her students, and learning about this growing industry gave us insight into possible future employers.

During homeroom, I started working on this article. 

Senior Kendall Busch, who is also in this homeroom, is another senior who decided to come to school today. 

“I read a book first period and then just sat in class second and third. I’m going to catch up on some work in the rest of my classes,” Busch said.  

In fourth period, we had a reading day. But I already finished my book, Dune, so I continued to work on this story. 

Senior Cadence Morton came to school for a different reason. 

“I had to come because I play lacrosse. My coach said if we don’t come to school, we could not practice, and if we don’t practice, we can’t play in our next game,” Morton said. 

Morton said that in one of her classes, it was just her and one other student. 

“I have done nothing all day,” Morton said. 

For a day to count as official attendance, a student only has to attend four periods. 

“I am leaving after fourth period and getting lunch with my friends,” Morton said. 

For a week we have been watching our classmates’ “What Comes Next Project.” 

Senior Dan Korac offered to present his video because everyone else in class already presented. 

Before Korac’s video, his introduction was a quote from the rapper Future, which Korac lives by each day: “From food stamps to a whole ‘nother domain, ya.”

Korac was working on his project on his own time while others anxiously awaited their turn. 

“I just got my video done yesterday, so it was just a coincidence I went today when no one was here,” Korac said. 

Korac hopes that one day he can make it to that next domain Future was talking about. 

I was expecting this predominantly senior study hall to be empty, but underclassmen whose teachers were absent funneled into the atrium. This ruined my plan to read and eat my lunch in peace, so I went to the library. 

The library had eight students in it, but it was silent. I enjoyed this while I read The Firm. 

Teacher Mike Bruckner first asked us if we thought our class was his most populous of the day. Everyone except one student said yes. The answer was no, because Bruckner’s first period class had 13 students. 

Senior Chris Vano was the one to say no. 

“Just a random guess,” Vano said. 

As I was talking with Vano, he mentioned that he has recently job-shadowed an auto shop mechanic.

“I just sat around all day (today), and I worked on my job shadowing reflection sheet,” Vano said. 

Vano said some of his friends did not come to school, but he was not missing out on anything they were doing. 

The only other senior here was Maddie Houser, who said it was a pretty boring day. 

For Houser, it wasn’t her decision to come to school today. 

“My mom forced me to come to school today,” Houser said. 

Although being forced to come to school is not the best, Houser saw some joy throughout the day.  

“I got doughnuts from Mrs. (Donna) McCord in math class, so that was fun,” Houser said. 

For me, today did not feel long, because I stayed busy writing this article and reading. I barely sat on my phone and scrolled randomly on social media. 

Being here on Senior Skip Day was no challenge, because I was able to interact with some students and teachers instead of sitting in boredom at my house.