Well, what a year it’s been. The 2020-2021 school year has been a strange one for every student in the district. But as the year draws to a close, the class of 2022 is coming to the realization that their career as students, which began when we were five, are about to draw to a conclusion. Which is a particularly unsettling epiphany for most.

It is a tradition that every incoming senior class experiences when they become the oldest in the building. Some call it ‘senioritis’ others just explain it as a feeling of not being prepared enough to begin their final year of high school. No matter what it’s called, it’s finally time for them to start saying goodbye to their childhoods. 

“For me, next school year is what everything’s been leading up to, and it’s insane that this is the final chapter of my high school story,” said incoming senior Ashley Haberberger. “It’s nerve-wracking, leaving the consistency of school after 13 years and making the harsh transition into life.” 

The ever-approaching enigma that is senior year brings with it the promise of beloved traditions being participated in for the final time. The last football game, prom, the bridge walk, and finally graduation. For many, walking across the bridge on the first day of freshman year feels like a few moments ago.

We as a class have only had one normal year of high school, and we were not smart enough to savor it for what it was. Senior year will have to be all we wanted it to be for our high school memories.

“It’s becoming more real every single day. It feels like yesterday I just started high school and in a blink of an eye, now I’m creating my senior schedule and applying for colleges,” said Amanda Yoder, a soon-to-be senior. “Our class really missed out on the majority of our high school experience, so looking ahead to senior year, I really feel this sense of hope that we can attend football games again, go to school dances, and finally enjoy high school for what it is.”

Over the years, we have all morphed into the adults we will enter society as in June 2022; we have grown a couple of inches and found our passions in life. We’ve spent three years making friends and soon we must say goodbye.

“I feel like even though I know generally what field I want to go into, and even what specifically what I want to do in that field, there’s still so much I’m not prepared for,” commented Julia Amery, another incoming senior. “Next year is literally around the corner and I have no idea what school or what state I want to be in, and it all feels like it’s happening too fast.”

To all soon-to-be seniors, I say only this: We’re all nervous for next year and we’re all not ready for this four-year ride to come to a close. But we can’t spend the last year together moping about adulthood; we have to go out with a bang. So please go to every event you can, watch the games, see the plays and walk across the graduation stage with no regrets. 

“Go forth and set the world on fire.” – St. Ignatius Loyola