You never asked me how I felt about senior year, but I’m here to tell you anyways.

Going into senior year, I thought I had an idea of what I was going into. But after being a senior for a month, I have discovered a whole other side of it I never expected. So let’s talk about what I did expect: the seniority. It’s been pretty great. I might stand at five feet tall, but being a senior has made me feel invincible. There are some things that are just a given, such as standing in the front row at the football games, and the freedom to take whatever classes your heart desires, along with some other perks I didn’t even realize —  things like unity between classmates and being a role model for the grades below you. These have definitely made this first month of my senior year unique from any other grade I’ve experienced. However, with the pros come the cons.

Let’s be realistic; if you’re a senior, you probably expected to have the best year of your life when you walked into PVHS on the first day of school. But unfortunately, as the days passed, the expectation did not live up to the reality. Though we received the great perks of becoming a senior, we were not expecting everything else that came with it. The homework. The college pressure. The extracurriculars. You name it. For many, it seems as though this year is the year where you have virtually no time for anything. I’ve tried to dissect it to figure out what causes this huge amount of stress, and I’ve been able to narrow it down to a few things.

First there are the classes. If you’ve been an honors student all four years of school, this probably doesn’t apply to you. But, if you’re someone like me who’s only been in a few honors classes, senior year was a slap in the face. Many of the seniors at our school are highly encouraged to take college and AP classes. This is mainly because they are the only classes left we haven’t taken that will fill up our credits, but also because when we were making our schedules junior year, it seemed like the most financially responsible choice, since we won’t have to pay for them later in college. We didn’t realize how difficult filling up our schedule with all honors was going to be. These classes come with a heavy workload both inside and outside the classroom, which means cramming in homework between the multiple extracurriculars.

Seniors participate in extracurriculars for multiple reasons. Some people do them to impress prospective colleges. Others do them because it’s their last chance before they leave high school. I’m not going to sit here and bash extracurriculars, because for the most part, they’re one of the best parts of high school. But it’s no secret that extracurriculars take up a lot of time. On top of that, since you’re the oldest, you’re immediately handed more responsibility than the grades below you, whether that be leading the team or taking on the presidency of your club (it really varies). They might be fun to join, but this definitely adds to the large class load and gives you even less time outside of school to do anything else.

Next there’s the actual college applications. There’s a whole bunch that goes into college apps besides your GPA; you’ve got to decide where you want to apply, write essays, get recommendations, get good scores on the SAT or ACT, and so much more. Trying to fit extracurriculars in is hard enough, but adding college to the equation only increases your chance of a mental breakdown.

Finally, there’s the fact that this is our last year in high school. On top of school, we all want to make sure that we don’t let our last year go to trash. So outside of homework, after-school activities and college, we try to squeeze in time to hang out with our friends, go to football games and spend time with family. It’s our last year before we leave all this behind, so we want to leave making our last memories the best. However, trying to have a good time is fairly difficult when you’ve got so much responsibility when it comes to your education and future. Therefore, I have decided that senior year is a solid 5/10. It’s a lot harder than I expected, but it’s also a really enjoyable and memorable time our of life. So let’s not waste it. Retweet if you’ve been personally victimized by senior year.