If you spend more than a week in the halls of a high school, you are bound to hear that amongst the four years at high school, senior year is one of, if not the easiest year of high school. Listing senior beach day, easy classes, and graduation as examples for the comfort of senior year, it’s easy to think of senior year as a time full of rainbows and sunshine. However, I would argue that senior year also harbors moments where you learn not everything is what it seems at first glance.
It is common for people to assume that senior year is super easy once college applications are done. In my opinion, if you have a sport and any AP classes left in the second semester, school will remain difficult as you try to balance your AP workload along with the stress of your sport. Especially since it is the last year that you can play your sport as a high schooler, you want to put in the extra effort to perform and end your last year on a good note. With the combination of stress from your sport and your classes, burnout (often dubbed senioritis) is imminent.
Another thing most are wrong about when it comes to senior year, is the idea that once you get into college, nothing matters anymore. While you can let a few classes drop a letter grade without any real clapback, those last few months after college decisions still matter. For instance, if you were a consistent A student and were admitted to a high and prestigious college, don’t let senioritis make you drop anywhere near or below a C-. Although that is a passing grade, prestigious colleges may rescind their admission offer due to such a sudden change in your academics. Grades aren’t the sole factor though, dips in extracurricular performance such as school sports or clubs could possibly affect your admission, especially if you’re a student athlete offered to play in a college.
One last common misconception about senior year is that people know what they’re doing after high school once they reach graduation. I can almost guarantee that your fellow peers are equally as lost in what their future career is going to be like. After all, we’re all just some 17 and 18-year-olds toeing the threshold called adulthood. When people say seniors know what they’re “going to do” it’s just what college they will be attending and what major they are going to study. However, it is common for them to change their majors in college, with some even changing their major more than once. So in reality, not many seniors really know what they’re going to do for the next few years, let alone all of them.