All their lives students hear, “Just wait until senior year. It’s going to be the best year of your life!” It seems exciting and truthful to an eight year old, or even a high school freshman. So, why does it seem like once your senior year actually comes, it’s not nearly as magical as everyone proclaims it to be?
Countless hours of homework, multiple papers due on the same day, and let’s not forget senior project add to the stress and confusion of trying to figure out senior year.
In addition to these factors, a new bell schedule, a new homeroom system, and even a new lateness policy have been thrown students’ way, more than enough factors to cause even seniors to re-adopt the confused freshman thought process.
Maybe this year, student life is different. What happened to the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? Are these changes the reason that senior year seems so much more confusing or is it just the teachers who think we have the ability to complete five assignments in one night? The jury’s still out.
Seniors are expected to set the standards in behavior, academics, and overall achievement and are also given privileges that other classes are not given. Despite all of this, it still seems like this year has been a sequel for “Back to the Future.”
The confusion has made senior year feel more like freshman year and it’s hard to feel like an ‘example’ for the school community amid this year’s changes.
Every teacher seems to think that ‘because seniors are older they can handle it.’ They take that as a free pass to assign more work, leaving heads spinning and thought processes reeling as seniors attempt to manage the challenge of their last year of high school.
With any luck, once privileges go into effect and as Spirit Week and Prom draw closer, the supposed excitement and thrill of being a senior will become more of a reality, rather than an overrated dream.
Until then, senior year will remain a slightly puzzling time. For now, senior year is a challenge, one that can either be ignored or embraced. If seniors put in hard work to their last year of high school, it’s going to be the best one yet—no magic required.