College. 

It’s a word seniors hear too much of. 

“Where are you going to college?”

“What are you planning to major in in college?”

“Do you have any plans for college?”

And while this is one of the most exciting moments in a senior’s life, it’s also one that’s extremely bittersweet.

From personal experience, your senior year is filled with a lot more emotions than you think. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, where senioritis takes control and you suddenly think you don’t care about school anymore. 

It begins with college applications. Ones you have to take time on-writing essays, building a resume, doing all the extracurriculars you can, and adding standardized testing scores for reference, making it seem like you are a perfect candidate for the college your applying to. 

Then it’s about balancing schoolwork during the year too. Wake up, go to school for 8 hours, come home, and immediately worry about those dumb college applications. 

And the moment when you finally finish all the applications comes the dreadful waiting period to see where you got accepted into. 

That second semester while decisions come out, there’s happiness, sorrow, and sometimes even a bit of tears. Yet, all the same, it’s a moment that’s kind of freeing. 

If you’ve ever seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it’s like that scene where Ferris dances in front of a parade, sings his heart out in front of hundreds of people and then comes home to lay in bed and remembers all the things he accomplished that day. That’s the feeling you get in your second semester. 

When I took my AP exams this year, it was a moment of stress, but also joy I hadn’t experienced in a while. Even though taking three hour tests seems like it would be dreadful – don’t get me wrong, it was – it was also the times I got to see my friends in a school setting, something I hadn’t experienced in over a year. 

Those ten minute breaks between the portions of the exams filled me with more happiness than I can explain. I felt like I was in elementary school again, playing with my friends at recess just soaking in the sun. But then came the remembrance that I was going to say goodbye to these people in two weeks. I started to treasure their laughs a little more, smiled when they told a random story they remembered, but most of all appreciated their companionship more than I used to.

And not just my friends I began to appreciate more, but also my family. Your family is more important than you think. I begin to eat my mom’s cooking a little slower to taste each ingredient, share more jokes with my dad to hear him laugh more, and play more games with my brother to hold on to the time I have left with him. 

Going to college is something that I am looking forward to, and saying goodbye to some of my memories in high school is something I’ve come to terms with, but can’t help being a bit sad about it. Your senior year is one you will wish to remember, and one you’ll find yourself being bittersweet about.

If I could give any advice, I’d say that take as many sunset drives with your friends as you can. Watch movies with your family and talk about all of your thoughts about the film. Listen to your teachers and tell them that you appreciate their patience with you. Be happy and excited, but also value everything around you– good or bad.

To end off with some final advice from Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it.”