Reflecting on Senior Year so far
Rewarding. If I had to choose one word to encapsulate my senior year thus far, that would be it. I knew coming in this summer that it would at times be difficult. In terms of academic rigor, my class schedule this year was slated to be the most challenging so far in high school. I was taking three AP classes, and on top of that two other classes that were weighted. Having to balance school with playing soccer, work, college apps, and my other extracurricular activities did not give me a lot of free time, but I wouldn’t change anything. Embracing the challenge, I became more in tune with myself as an independent worker, and also deepened my relationships with my teammates and my friends.
I have a younger sister who is going to be a junior next year, and I was thinking about pieces of advice that I could give to her as she becomes an upperclassman. I think that I would tell her to not be afraid of undertaking too much. While I was incredibly busy at certain times during the semester, the feeling when I accomplished everything that I needed to do was so gratifying. And also, high school doesn’t last forever, so I think that you need to take advantage of all of the opportunities that you have to get involved and make memories.
Here are some of my biggest takeaways:
–Spend time with your friends: With as much as you may have on your plate, it is still so important to make time to hang out with your friends. A random Saturday night could turn into the most fun that you have ever had. Ultimately, it will not be all of the work that you remember from your senior year, but the people that you spent it with.
–Go to school events: Go to all of the school events. I don’t care what it is. The 80’s dance, homecoming, football games, crosstown, basketball games, Mr. NNHS, the musicals. Go to everything, because sometimes this will be the last chance that you get to do these things.
–Meet new people: This kind of goes along with my other two points above, but I’ve gotten to know a lot of new people this year. Even just getting to know better people that you are already familiar with is enough to make new connections that you will treasure forever.
–Watch the World Cup: Obviously this is not going to be applicable every year, only once every four, but I can really say that watching the World Cup this year was the most excitement I’ve ever felt watching a sporting event on TV. I watched almost all of the games from the group stages through to the knockouts, oftentimes in class, silently reacting to whatever happened in the games. Rooting for Croatia, I remember watching their group stage game against Belgium during my third period class and seeing every other guy in the class looking at their computer screens with a shocked expression whenever Lukaku missed an open goal. My heart dropped at least four times watching it for that very reason. And I will forever remember coming home after school and racing to my living room to turn on the TV to see the penalty shootout between Argentina and the Netherlands. Also sitting and watching the World Cup Final with my dad while simultaneously trying to review for my calculus final will be a moment that I will forever cherish.
As I look back on this first semester, I certainly remember being swamped with schoolwork as I tried to finish my college essays, but I think that when I look back on it in the future, the moments that I will remember will be the times spent with my friends and my family, and all of the memories that I have made.
Jack, I can totally relate to loading up your courses for senior year. Don’t ask my why, but I took the maximum load of honors/AP classes this year. I fall into a very similar boat. I have a younger sister who I have been trying to give valuable advice to, help with school work, and guide her to not make the mistakes that I madeduing the three years prior. Additionally, I had college apps, a new job for senior year, and I lift after school nearly every single day.
My idealogy has revolved around getting things done, just as you said. I have been less mature in prior years and now, I have begun to just get things don’t because there is little benefit to waiting.
I’m not a big soccer fan, but wow, the world cup was super fun and entertaining. It brought my friends and family together when we could collectively cheer for a team or against a different team. Must I say, what a finish! The final world cup match was incredible and maybe the most entertain every. While it is sad that the United States went out so early, at least we made it past the group stage this year.
Thanks for the post and it is remarkable how similar our thinking about senior year is.
Hey Jack! I also began my blog with a sentence about how, although the most challenging semester yet, senior year has been very rewarding so far. I agree with your advice to underclassmen, get involved, and make memories. This is all about continuing to discover what you enjoy doing, that you can keep exploring in college, and definitely taking the leap to try new things is important, I appreciate how you made bullet points of your biggest takeaways. Going to school events has definitely been a different experience this year than in the past year, I feel like I appreciate them more. Meeting new people is something that is always great, this is one of my favorite things about going to college as well. I feel like meeting people regularly is great for relationships and life experiences. I’ve never watched a world cup game until this year (even then I only watched free clips, yikes), but I think I could really get into soccer. The fast pace and emotions of each game are crazy, unlike basketball, football, or even hockey in my opinion. This year has been very difficult, but there have been some great memories as well!
Hey Jack, honestly if I were to choose a word to sum up my senior year so far it would definitely not be “rewarding”. It would more so be “stressful” or “below-average” or another word like that. I’m honestly jealous of your determination and hard work. I’ve taken a slightly easier year compared to my junior year, but have still struggled to manage all aspects of my life as this semester has probably been my lowest semester GPA out of all of my high shool semesters. I know you mentioned that it’s important to spend time with friends, go to school events, and meet new people and whatnot, but those are the exact things I’m currently regretting since I lacked in all of those things throughout high school. I guess a good word for my senior year would be “regretful” because I’m regretting all the time I have lost and the grades I couldn’t achieve and the colleges I couldn’t get into. I’ve made a promise to myself that I will do things differently when I go to college. I do have to say though that the World Cup was pretty hype and just being able to watch it with friends in school and sometimes even in classes was so much fun. I, too, will treasure those memories.