Practically, senior year will need to be your easiest year, course load wise. If you take all AP classes, you will be absolutely out of effort by the second semester. Senioritis is the realest thing, and completely underestimated. It does not just mean that you will not care about things and start slacking off, it means that you will most likely be so mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted that you cannot put forth effort into practically anything. Go to prom. You will regret missing out on typical high school activities, I can guarantee it. Take the easiest classes that you can. Take as many dual credit classes or community college classes as you can so that you will be able to go into college a semester or a year ahead.

Morally, senior year will stretch you probably beyond your limits. You will be challenged in new ways, whether that be your friends and/or relationships struggling, or the toll that senioritis takes on your mental health. You will likely lose interest and grow out of the things that have taken your time during high school, simply because growth requires sacrifice. Maybe you will grow so close to your family that leaving in a few months scares you more than anything, or maybe tension will grow in your family and the thought of leaving in a few months feels like relief. You will experience beauty, undeniably, in everything. You will learn that there is more important things than grades and class ranks and test scores. There is life to be lived outside of this high school bubble. There are flowers to be picked and there are roads to be driven on and there are dogs to be pet and babies to hold. There is hurt in this world that needs people like you to heal it. There is a whole world that needs people like you to change it.

Staff Writer, Hanna Gaither