Senior struggles

Senior year is a lot of “last” chances. Whether it is your last game playing with your teammates, the last Friday football game of the season, the last time at the lunch table with friends, the last 6 a.m. wake-ups, the last year where you will have to worry about doing your essay for ELA the night before because you forgot. This is the year when you soak in everything from the past four years before you say your last goodbyes. Every senior is different, some cannot wait to get out of here, and others would do anything to make the time go by a bit slower. 

I asked some of the 2023 graduates how they felt about this being our last year, so you could get the gist of things. 

What has been the most difficult thing about senior year? The easiest?

Mason Spears– “The hardest thing about senior year is probably staying motivated, knowing you’re about to graduate makes you lazy. The easiest thing would probably be the classes, the easiest of high school by far.”

AK Mathis–  “The hardest thing about senior year is pushing through. You definitely start losing some of that motivation you have easy on, especially once you start to get accepted to colleges. It is hard to hold on to the good grades and all the extracurricular activities due to burnout. It is doable, and I think that just doing our best on top of all this upcoming change is understandable and honestly admirable.”

Loucious Rudin– “The hardest has been being motivated to do the work. This isn’t senioritis, but more of just my brain. Something I have struggled with since 7th grade. The easiest thing for me is probably the curriculum. I don’t have any classes that are tremendously hard, and all of my teachers are pretty cool.”

Aiden Williamson– “The hardest thing about senior year is letting go. The classes are people are only temporary, so it feels painful thinking about how this is our last chance to make the best of it.” 

Senior year has many difficulties to push through, it can be motivation, keeping up with classes and grades, extra curricular activities, especially with it being over in a few more months. The good thing about senior year though is most of the classes are super easy to get through the year with and pretty chill overall. 

What was something you were told growing up and just now realizing is true? 

Loucious Rudin– “Learning to be alone is of the utmost importance. If you can’t learn to deal with isolation, life’s cruelty will strike thousands of times harder.”

AK Mathis– “Time flies by. I don’t know how many times I heard someone much older than me say those eye-roll-inducing words. It’s cliché and overused, sure. It catches you off guard how quickly time goes by.”

Mason Spears– “Something I was always told was school doesn’t define you. I finally realized it was true, just because you get bad grades and fail a test doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it only means you can improve.”

Some people experience it through high school, some do not, but once you are out of school for a year you feel isolated, and it shows you many things, but mainly how to cope without being around people or having that social interaction and learning how to rely on yourself as well. No matter how cliché it is, the phrase “time goes by” will forever be true. It feels like the 6th grade orientation was yesterday, and now we are all graduating. It is true, though, it does go by in a blink, and if anything do not over stress yourself about grades in school. Of course it is important, but do not wreck yourself over a bad test grade or a C on your report card. Instead of pushing yourself down from it, learn from it and get better from there. Do not just give up. 

What is something from high school you will never forget? 

AK Mathis– “Something I will never forget is the amount of teachers that truly care for their students. It reminds me that even in challenging, tiring places like school, there are people that acre immensely about us students and our lives.”

Aiden Williamson– “I will never forget about how much my friendships meant to me. Each person has changed my life and helped me grow as a person.”

Loucious Rudin–  “He unmatched feeling of walking into the first day of school and seeing your class and who is in it. I do not think it could be replicated.”

The friendships we gain, either it is something you have had throughout high school, or someone that you took different paths from. No matter how long, everyone we have had in our life has made an impact and allows you to learn and grow from there. Another impact our students will gain from MCHS is our teachers, people forget that they have to be here for the amount of hours we are, even more, but they never fail to help their students academically and mentally. One of the best feelings was mid-July you were anticipating the class schedules to come out so you could compare them with your friends and see who you have classes with. 

What teacher got you through high school/Inspired you the most?

AK Mathis– “Mr. Cowne. I have never met someone who cares so strongly for his students. He inspires me, and so many of my classmates, everyday to be our best selves. He loves fiercely, teaches like an oddly smart rodeo clown, and most importantly he is there for every student, teacher, and person he might ever come into contact with. He has helped me through a lot and that is something I can only be thankful for.”

Loucious Rudin– “Glad I can talk about Mr. Orr here. He really was the teacher who made me realize how human teachers are. Their teacher and their personality can be completely separate. These people are mothers, fathers, siblings, etc. He has always been known throughout the school as an amazing teacher and an amazing person at the same time. He is the only man who could get me to even consider watching more movies. Regardless of his monotone way of things (which I am the same way), he is just a really kind guy. 

Personally, I would also like to give a thank you to Mr. Orr, if anything got me through high school not only the class itself, but the teacher I got out of it. The last four years I have had a teacher that has inspired me to do what I want to do in life, and has always been a fantastic person to talk to, ramble, explain, and also someone who you can talk to your interests to, so thank you Orr!

What advice would you give to incoming freshmen? Incoming seniors?

Mason Spears– “Incoming freshmen, so not bring drugs into school or the bathrooms, you WILL get caught. Upcoming seniors, stay focused and pass all of your classes, its your last year so make sure it IS your last year.”

AK Mathis– “Incoming freshmen, do not start off on the wrong foot. Whatever your aspirations are, do not wait to start on the path toward those goals. I remember thinking as a freshman that my senior year was so far away, thinking I could wait to start applying myself and having fun and working hard, but it flew by. Do not wait to do whatever it is you want and need to to do to obtain the life you want.”

It was even said earlier, time flies by. Once you get in the habit of having the mindset of “Oh, I still have a few years” or “I still got time.” Go ahead and get it done, once you know it you will be a senior and need to do it all in less then a year. If anything, no matter who or what anyone says, do not bring anything to school that you are not supposed to. Do not try to be sneaky in the bathrooms, majority of the time, it does not work.

Moral of the story is, high school is growing as a person from a four year time frame, and senior year is taking all of that within a year. Make everything count, have fun, do not let tough times bring everything else down, pay attention in class, treat teachers well, and please do not do anything to mess you or your future up and regret it later on.