Too Much Too Soon: The Realities of Senior Stress
September 10, 2015
On August 24th I started my last year of high school. This is my last year to attend chilly, Friday night football games, or to be a part of the student section in an overcrowded, humid gymnasium; my last year attending 15 minute peprallies after fourth block, or listening to Mr. Hartman’s lame jokes.It is also my last year walking into school with my best friend at my side; something we’ve been doing for almost seven years now. It seems like just yesterday we were in Mrs. Yoho’s fifth grade class, and now we’re preparing to graduate high school together. Looking around, I wonder how time has gone by so fast.
So I’m a senior, what now? As a starting senior, I didn’t quite factor in all the parts of becoming an adult. I wasn’t prepared for any of the responsibility that comes with growing up. I wasn’t prepared to apply to a college of my choice. I spent my whole life attending a school because I lived in a certain school district. I didn’t have a choice where I lived growing up; my parents made that choice for me. Once you become a senior, you soon realize that you have to start making your own decisions. You’ll have to get a job and save up for college, or any other expenses that contribute to being a senior. Some of you may already have savings accounts for college, but for the people who don’t (like me, for example) we have to start working to save up for it. As a senior (or junior), you have to start visiting colleges and plan where to apply, and learn how to apply. Administrators will pressure you and ask you a million questions about your career pathway and what you’re planning on doing in college, but the reality is, most people don’t know.
Too Much Too Soon will be featured in Titan Times. Our goal is to provide regular articles focusing on the major stresses of the senior year as well as some advice concerning how to resolve it. I want to prepare and inform my fellow classmates as well as underclassman of the responsibilities that come with your senior year. I hope Too Much Too Soon will give you some resources and some timely advice; something I wish I’d had more of before I started dealing with way too much way too soon.