Seniors, the Time is Now
Some of us are about to walk that stage and receive the holder for our diploma that represents the completed chapter of “high school.” The next steps in our life is adulthood and figuring out our place in the world. Which is scary but we have a couple more months until we worry about how much we are spending on Walmart pick-up or what’s our social security number. It’s easy to get lost in worrying about where you’re going after high school, how you’re going to get there. But by having good people around, talking to your teachers and counselors, you won’t have as much stress as you may think. Something that might play in our minds is that we have to be all put together, don’t let others see us mess up but don’t be scared of what people think or say. At the end of the day we are all young adults trying to figure out our left from our right and where we fit in, we are all in this together.
Before you start doing all the fun parts of school, make sure you are all caught up on the necessary parts of school. Set goals, they don’t have to be huge, 10 year goals. Start off with small ones like turning in 5 missing assignments by the end of next week. Senior year isn’t supposed to be you in your room worried that you won’t walk or trying to catch up on your 50 late assignments, at 10:30 p.m. in late May. This is our last and final year, it should be enjoyed by being outside, going to games, plays, or hanging out with friends or maybe even working. You want to make the best last impression you can, prove to yourself that you can be that student that others said you weren’t.
Something I have seen on social media is bringing around a disposable camera. Yes we now have phones, with better quality but there is something more meaningful and sweet about having a little camera just to share between you and friends. With phones we use it on a daily basis and it loses the “cherished” feel, but the disposable camera has that feel and can be used to tell a story. It’s important to remember the good times and create good memories, especially on the hard days when the good times seem so far. The people we meet are going to come in and out of our lives and it’s nice to remember, the ones we chose as lessons and as people who you needed to meet to grow. Because to grow we need to lose things to make room for something greater, that’s what the cameras and pictures could share and remind us that our phones could not.
This one may be a little trickier to put together but how about a road trip? I’m not talking about driving 16 hours away to Colorado and booking a hotel that charges you for WATER, but a short little trip to the Columbia river in Tri Cities, on a nice warm day. Or if you did want to go a little farther and stay a few nights, you can head over to the Westside and go to Bellingham. That’s only 3 and a half hours away and see a very pretty side of Washington. Don’t feel you have to go to the farthest and most exotic place you can find, that’s not the point of a road trip. The point is all of the people you care about sitting in one car, laughing, filling up on stale gas station candy and listening to different kinds of music. The time to really bond and connect.
We all have broken things by accident for free, why not go somewhere and pay someone to break more stuff on purpose. If you let all of your emotions build like me and my friends, try a range room. Over the last couple of years they have become very popular, what it basically is: a room full of old, trashy, half broken things like TVs, vases, chairs and just random wood pieces. That you can break with whatever weapons they have put in the room, it’s not only a way to get all of that anger out, it’s kind of a silly little thing to do with your friends. People have said once they leave they feel a lot better and less stressed, this will also really show you how crazy your friends can be.
The most common but not as talked about as much is a senior box, you can go to any store and buy a simple blank wooden box, paint, stickers and anything else you can think of. Create a little keepsake of the things you and your friends did or things you did by yourself that year, there is no limit to what can and can’t be put in or on it. It’s supposed to describe you and who you are during the year, you can put a movie ticket, a video game you couldn’t stop playing or a bracelet that you made with someone. If you really wanted to, you could put a leaf in the box to remember how you went to the park. It’s a way to express yourself, enjoy the little things because sometimes the little things are what keeps us going.
School isn’t for everyone. I don’t enjoy school a hundred percent, but I still go because I know I am made for so much more than what’s going for me right now. Being in my last year of high school is scary because these new fears are coming out like; what’s next? How will I be able to live on my own? Deep down under the fear, there is an excitement and this enthusiastic feeling. It’s important to give these last couple of months your all, so you can see what’s next and find out where you fit in. Change and growing up is scary but it also can be a great thing because if you are already at rock bottom, you can only go up.