Senior year gives students the chance to make a healthy transition from high school to college. Many students take less stressful classes, which makes time for college applications, fun activities, and making memories with friends.
Schools tend to plan events catered to seniors, such as Senior Sunrise or Sunset, Senior Rec, and Senior Prom. This makes students feel appreciated by the faculty, since they have special days meant for them. Many look forward to these events, as they promote school spirit and give kids something to look forward to.
If seniors are involved in school-sponsored activities, they have the opportunity to have the best experience possible for numerous reasons. Leadership opportunities are more accessible to seniors than to others, due to experience and seniority.
Seniors are also role models for younger students, providing influence and having a bigger say in group activities and dynamics. Seniors who are committed in their sports and activities have better chances of getting into more prestigious colleges, as leadership and involvement strengthen college and scholarship applications.
There is also an abundance of recognition in a student’s final year of high school. Whether being recognized through activities, clubs, or even just graduation, each senior has their chance to be highlighted. The satisfaction of having hard work pay off is a great reward for finishing out the school year.
Academic, athletic, and participatory awards can bring a student’s year to a close and validate their pursuits.
Senior year can come with a whirlwind of emotions, but it ultimately seals a memorable chapter of life. Whether students will miss high school or not, there is no doubt that life will be different going from a place where they know everyone to a life where they are given a fresh start. Wrapping up something so impactful as high school is a huge milestone in every student’s life.
Even though senior year brings new opportunities, the year is ultimately filled with stress and big decisions.
With seniors facing tough choices about which colleges, trades, or jobs they want to pursue after high school, the year is filled with more seriousness and stress than the last year of school should have.
During senior year, focusing on grades and waiting for college or trade school decisions is a crucial and stressful part of life. The long hours used to apply to schools and the anticipation built up waiting for decisions is a lot for kids.
Meanwhile, trying to balance school, senior activities, sports, extracurriculars, jobs, and more becomes exhausting for students.
Seniors are expected to have most of their lives figured out at 17 or 18 years old, even when most adults say they didn’t.
Social media also makes life more complicated. Every commitment and acceptance letter posted makes it seem more of a competition among students and their classmates to post and celebrate their achievements. Comparison becomes undeniable and takes a toll on people’s mental health.
Schools try to highlight the year with events like Senior Sunrise, Senior Prom, and graduation, but they fail to realize that most students are running on an empty tank. When students miss school with “senioritis,” many don’t realize it isn’t because of laziness: It is because of stress and being overworked.
The sense of familiarity that seniors have had their whole lives starts to wither away. Seniors realize that after graduation, they may never again see some of the people they have seen every day for almost their whole lives.
Although senior year is a milestone that many kids have thought about for a long time, it seems to be more stressful and overwhelming than years prior.
