Dear future seniors,

Your senior year is exciting! You have spent the past 11 grades looking up to this moment. As a senior of 2021, my class and the class of 2020 have missed out on a lot of the things we looked forward to for those 11 years. So your class should enjoy those things that you do get. Looking to your senior year, you never imagine a pandemic swooping in and ruining all of your fun senior activities. But the fact that you may get more than some of the classes before you should make you cherish all of the memorable senior moments you do get. As a senior who missed out on a lot of my senior activities, I try to find some of the things that I get that future classes may never get, and that past classes may have never had. 

In the years I’ve been in school, I’ve never had to do virtual school. So I am thankful for the experience I was able to get from it this year, and I am thankful I was able to stay home and spend more time with my family. I was able to develop some more responsibility within myself, i picked up playing the guitar and piano more, and I was able to get more hours in at my work. I took in a stray dog and was able to teach him lots of tricks since I was at home more. I caught up on some of my Netflix shows, and I was able to fit my homework into a schedule that fit where I needed it to. There were many positives that I found in virtual school, I just had to look past all of the negatives.

When I was in grade school, all I wanted to do was to be in middle school. But when middle school came, I couldn’t wait to be titled a highschool student.I spent each year in high school, excited for the next. Excited to not have to be the baby of the school, then excited to be the upperclassmen. Finally, excited to be the senior of the school, and put all those years behind me. As my senior year comes to an end, I am excited to graduate, but an overwhelming feeling of dread and worry passes me. After all of those years, waiting for this moment, I wish I could go back to the middle schooler who tried to keep up with the popular trends. I wish to go back to the innocent grade school kid who got recess and class parties, and treasure boxes. It suddenly feels like the 11 years that couldn’t get here fast enough, now got here too fast, and my k-12 experience is almost over. So while you await your senior year, and rush your last few months to be a senior, take a moment and be thankful that you are a junior. Take a moment to look back on your past school years, and remember that senior year will come. You only have so much time being a junior, so before it ends, make sure that instead of wishing for it to be over, you enjoy and get to live in your junior year.

When your senior year does arrive though, you may start to feel the pressure of life. After this year, some students will be or are already 18 years old. That number comes with a lot of responsibility, such as getting your life together, moving out, starting your career. Remember that everything takes time, so don’t try to do everything at once.

It’s okay to be unsure where you want to go to college, and what career you want to pursue. Take each day as it comes, and slowly ready yourself so that you may come out of senior year with some ideas of where you want to take your life. Juniors, after all your hard work and preparation to become a senior, amidst the excitement to graduate, and reminiscence of the past, make sure to enjoy your senior year. It will likely be your only one.

From,

A Graduating Senior