Spring break is one of the perfect times for a senior in high school. The weather finally starts to get nicer, trips are being planned, no school for a week, and there is sudden relief from stress and a preview of what life is like after graduation.
This week is also the time when a few seniors get to take their senior trip and go to new countries or places of their interest.
Then, after spring break is the week of prom, and the excitement is high as one of the last major events for seniors is coming to an end.
The night is a blast, and almost a bit of a sentimental feeling washes over as the dance ends and friends depart to their after-prom plans.
While this time may seem fun and magical, it is the time after that that has seniors going through the longest 6 weeks of their lives.
“After prom, there is really nothing to look forward to other than graduation, and that still feels far away at the moment,” Ella Yde said.
Looking forward to graduation has been more of a battle these last couple of months than it is an excitement. Ready to move on and just be out of high school while still holding on to the little bit of time left in the school year.
The feeling of these last couple of weeks is exhausting, and the urge to just give up on school work and slack off becomes stronger within seniors.
Even the teachers have started to notice the slack and felt a bit of the seniors’ tension during this time.
“After spring break seniors start to check out and that is when you start to see the attitudes emerge,” Dunn said. “Generally the last week they start to become sentimental about school.”
The drag on of the rest of the school year and having nothing else to look forward to almost feels like a personal hell.
Being ready to move on to college and get studies actually within their degrees and jobs turns seniors into a kind of animal, and the grouchiness starts to come out of nowhere.
Every little thing irritates you and makes you snap in ways you usually would not.
“The ones that get hit the toughest is the seniors who do not know where they are going or what they are going to do,” Dunn said.
The seniors who do not know what they are doing after high school start to feel left out with their classmates and almost like a lost cause. Seeing everyone around them just knowing what they want to do with their lives and envying them for being able to choose.
With graduation coming up quickly, they know that they are supposed to make a decision, and some of them can not just park it on mom and dad’s couch for a while after graduation.
I used to be in the boat of not knowing what I was going to do or where I was going to go after I graduated. While this was not during my senior year, even during that time, it felt as though I was far behind my classmates, and I was pressured to make a decision.
While I now know that I plan to study Diagnostic Medical Sonography out of high school, I do have friends that only know where they are moving to or have no idea at all.
I have seen it affect them more than me these last couple of weeks and even months for some, and while I seem to be done with school and feel my mood becoming worse every day, they still seem to beat me in ways.
“My attitude this last month has honesty come out of nowhere. I do not even recognize myself sometimes or what I am saying,” Yde said.
It can be hard to keep it all contained and bottled up for seniors during this time with things constantly being pushed in our faces about our grades, graduation, jobs, college, majors, taxes, loans, and so much more. Every talk we have with teachers and advisors just seems to become more stress piled on top of our shoulders, and it slowly builds up inside.
Seniors are also just done with school in general and the maturity levels. Watching as the maturity levels change and others act in certain ways that just irritate us or make it seem as though we know it all.
People do not stop to think of the different ages and how we acted during that time and how the maturity levels are going to be significantly different between four years and even just one year.
While it may seem far away, and many are just slowly counting down the days feeling like the clock passes slow as ever, graduation is closer than it feels, and there is almost a sense that few will wish they had done more or enjoyed this time more than waiting for it to approach.
While it may feel long now, it will go by in a breeze, and then, suddenly, on a random Wednesday in June, senior’s high school careers will be over, and life will move on.
