From freshman year, and even beforehand, every student is anxious to reach senior year of high school. It's a hot topic among teens, and it's the first thing adults ask when they hear you're in high school.
"Looking forward to senior year?"
The answer for me was always yes. I, though definitely classified as an "overachiever" from the beginning of my public school years, yearned to escape the busywork and noise of elementary school. And then to escape the busywork and angst of middle school. And then to escape the busywork and sleepless nights and college pressures and extracurriculars and suddenly intense teachers of high school.
Now? I'm here. It's finally senior year -- I, an '11 high school graduate, can walk the halls confidently, no longer lost in the vast tunnel-like hallways of my 3,500 student high school. I've braved eleven years of dimly lit classes and intellectually undernourished public school teachers, and this is the last one ever (ever!).
Though it shouldn't surprise me that this year is the same as all the others, it does. There's some mystical quality in the way senior year is portrayed, a time of superiority over the other high schoolers, of college applications and minimal schoolwork.
In real life, most of my friends are working harder than ever, pulling all-nighters for AP classes and delaying the completion of college applications and essays as long as possible. It's that tense in-between time my peers and I are going through now, and it's hard when we're all vying for room to stretch in the public school box that's housed us for the majority of our lives.
Maybe the fuss about senior year is misleading. Truth is, the hype isn't about senior year itself, but what is beyond. College looms like the Emerald City on the skyline of every kid's future. It's all about us finding the right place to discover that stretching room, wondering if it's good enough for us and if we're good enough for it.
It does scare me a little sometimes, thinking about the fact that what I've done so far determines what I'll be doing for the next four years and maybe even the rest of my life. But as Ronnie Turner, sports writer for the Chronicle, said to us today, "It ain't nothing special. I just been living, that's all."
Sara
it's all hype. but that doesn't necessarily mean that when you get to it, it's bad. people just make too much noise over all these...expected delights.
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