Lakeland seniors are preparing for graduation as the end of their final month is approaching.
However, some seniors can agree that something about their final year is different than previous graduates.
Maybe it is because they did not get to paint their parking spot? Or maybe that they have to buy their caps to throw in the air, but aren’t allowed to decorate them. Is it the strict rules around senior pranks?
To many of the seniors, it is a combination of all of these things.
Scrolling online and countless montages of senior traditions being held true at other schools have been causing some envy throughout the class of 2025, as Lakeland has been cutting back on these events.
One big event that this year’s seniors have been planning on is their senior prank.
From blow-up water slides to barbeques, this year’s seniors planned to take over the high school parking lot and make it their own for the day.
School administration, however, only agreed to this prank if all the participants were still following the dress code.
This means no waterslides, unless you’re fully clothed.
One tradition whose loss has hit particularly hard for upcoming seniors as well is the loss of painting parking spots.
Considered an eyesore to the school administration, one of the most beloved traditions has been entirely scrapped.
“Selfishly, I don’t think that it looks appealing,” Dustin Frank said. “By appealing, I mean it looked scattered.”
Offers to fund, organize, and run the event entirely independently from the school were rejected.
Correlated to this cancellation may also be due to the repavement of the student parking lot.
“I always see schools everywhere with colorful and personalized parking spots. I don’t understand why we can’t do what every other school can,” William Caldwell said.
Another issue with personalization ties to decorating graduation caps.
Using quotes or glitter, seniors across the country decorate their caps with meaningful messages and one final closing statement that they will throw into the air on their graduation day.
This has become a big no for Lakeland as well.
“It is one of those things I have thousands of ideas saved to do, and now I never can. I get the idea of trying to control more of the events to keep it restricted, but everyone is only a senior once, and it feels like this one year is being taken from us,” Brook Caparco said.
All good things must come to an end. For many current seniors, it seems that this end is approaching with little to no celebration.
One of the top-scoring grades for ISATs and other state testing, these seniors are not just another face in the crowd for Lakeland.
Senior athletes find themselves travelling internationally for sports after high school, future nurses wrap up their final tests to become certified, and KTEC students earn their licenses and begin apprenticeships.
In the final year of being kids, it seems the childhood dreams that we watched play out in movies are not going to be possible for many years to come.
