There comes a point in everyone’s life where they reach adulthood. I’m not talking about reaching 18, but their day to day life changes from student to adult. That final year of high school is a flurry of emotions, excitement and fear, joy and sadness, all because you’re beginning a new chapter. Those last few months are a mess for us seniors and we get all these opportunities, trips and events and adventures we’ll only have one time to experience as who we are now.
Many students may be going to college, others go to work, but in the end, we are starting a new beginning. The biggest emotion we as seniors feel right now, is that fear of the unknown. Not just regular anxiety but fear of what might or might not happen in the future. Seniors know when we leave high school that we will have more freedom, but we still don’t know what’s going to come day after day, because we now don’t have that consistency of school, where every day is the same. Seniors are used to a set schedule. But that isn’t a bad thing. It also opens us to welcome in the good, and the bad, to live through it all and learn.
Seniors don’t need to be scared, even if we aren’t sure what we are doing. I myself will be going to college for a short time. Alongside it, I plan to be working out of high school as it can continue to aid young adults such as myself and the rest of us seniors with getting some money into our pockets. Of course, you can have a job and college at the same time, but you have that tuition to pay for as well. However! Do not take my ideas of my future to heart. This is my choice, you have yours. Be free to do what you want after your graduation, whether it be to go to a college, work, or even travel abroad if that’s your speed. Be open and free to make your choices because that is what our graduation is for, so you can be free to do what you want and be yourself.
There are some people who did not worry, but had optimism about the end of their high school career, one such person being recent Norristown alumni, Julissa Alvaro. She graduated from school just last year, with high hopes and plans for her future.
“I had college plans and job plans ready so I wasn’t super nervous,” said Alvaro, “but stuff doesn’t go away as easily as you think they will, so I was always prepared for the worst.”
The aforementioned “worst” were situations if an event didn’t go according to plan, such as not getting a job or running low on money. Having these backups ready for if anything happened made everything easier for her for graduation and beyond.
“I genuinely believe I’ve never felt any dread after graduating or even beforehand because I wrote every plan and idea that came to mind,” said Alvaro, “I was nervous about college and interviews and whatnot, but I wasn’t ever afraid because I knew this was something worth being happy about.”
Everyone should be using her optimism as an example. While leaving high school is scary for all of us, we are also opening up so many gateways for ourselves. We should always take whatever comes at us with stride, good or bad, and use those experiences later in life if the opportunity ever arises. Our futures are bright and coming fast, and we are all preparing for it.
We aren’t the only ones who will be feeling the effects of this big change. While teachers experience this every single year, it never changes, because the people who leave are always different from the ones who came beforehand. Mr. Schafer is one individual who has been experiencing this for quite some time, and it has impacted him every time.
“It’s easy and it’s difficult at the same time. It’s easy because I know how to handle graduation, and when i say handle it I mean, I know its an emotional time for students, it’s the culmination of their high school career, it’s the gateway to their next step, whatever that next step is, and so it is a big day for seniors,” said Schafer, “There are some people I’m happy for, happy because I had some part in their success, but I’m happy for others who struggled. And I don’t mean COVID-19 struggled, I don’t mean normal teenage struggles, I mean someone who overcame something.”
We are all in that kind of situation that Schafer mentioned, we don’t all have a normal teen struggle, everyone has something else going on either in their daily lives or in their personal lives that eats at them, and it can hurt us for our final months in school. If you still worry, there is one piece of advice Mr. Schafer has given to all of us.
“There’s a lot of advice I would give. Don’t let your present condition be your limit, because when you graduate from high school everybody thinks it’s a really big deal, and it is a big deal but there are millions and millions of high school students doing the exact same thing you’re doing, graduating from high school,” said Schafer, “It’s what you do next that’s going to make the change, are you going to go to college and be successful in college or are you going to go into the military and be a good representative of your country, are you going to go into the job market and are you going to do something for your community? It’s the next step that I believe, it’s what you do next and what you get back, it’s what you do because you can’t live forever.”
With that, my fellow seniors, I wish every one of you the best of luck for our last few weeks, and for our futures.
