Four Tips for Finishing Your Senior Year in High School
It’s April and that senioritis is starting to kick in. We’ve all felt it—the readiness for something new, the laziness, the apparent inability to do anything productive. Yet AP exams are right around the corner and those last papers and tests need to be finished up in order to graduate. Soon you’ll be getting your graduation cap and gown and ordering your last yearbook. You’ll be submitting that deposit and filling out housing forms for college. But, all you really want to do is enjoy the nice spring days and spend as much time with your friends while you can.
You only have a few weeks left in the school year, so how do you spend it?
1. Study for those exams
It’s hard to stay motivated during your last few weeks of school, but that is not a reason to just completely slack off. You’ve worked too hard for too long not to do well on your APs and your final papers. Colleges don’t want to see that you completely let your grades drop. Study within reason and put in your best effort. Get some sleep, eat well, and take breaks.
It doesn’t feel like it now but knowledge from these subjects that you’re studying may be helpful in the future. Even if you think you’re never going to study biology again, you might have to take an elective in that topic in the future. Study hard, but you can still have fun.
2. Spend time with your friends and embrace traditions
While academics are no doubt important, you’re also approaching that last few weeks with your high school friends and the last few months in which you’ll all be living in the same town. Spend as much time with your friends as you can. Go support your friend at their last lacrosse game or see another friend in their musical. Go to all of those cheesy senior year events with your class. Explore all those places in the surrounding areas that you never explored before—go to a hidden-gem coffee shop, that local restaurant you’ve always heard people talking about, etc. Go to senior prom/ball with a group, even if you have a date.
Enjoy your friends while you can, because you don’t know when you’ll see them next once everyone goes off to college. It can be hard to stay in contact. It’s easy to get caught up in daydreams about the future, but take a moment to appreciate what you have now because it will never be the same again.
3. Don’t forget about your resume
Soon you’ll be moving into your college dorm and starting new activities, and high school activities will feel like a distant echo. It’s important that you keep track of everything that you’ve done in high school, because you’ll be surprised how quickly you forget. Make sure to update your resume and have a list of activities you participated in and a brief description of each activity.
You may want to apply for an on-campus job during the first few months of school, and you’ll want your resume handy. You’ll also want to record everything you did so you can talk about it in an interview. You never know what skills may be applicable in the future!
4. Ask for advice
You’re expected to make a lot of big decisions after spending eighteen years receiving constant guidance from parents, teachers, and other adult figures in your life. Suddenly, you feel like you need to be an adult now. You feel like you need to know what your major is and what you want to do after college (hint: you don’t). But you do have to learn to be responsible for yourself and your time.
But that doesn’t mean that you need to be completely independent. It’s still okay to ask for advice and it’s still okay to question the decisions you’re making. You’re not completely alone just because you’re going to college. Ask older siblings, relatives, or even your friend’s older sister any questions you have about college and life after high school. The end of senior year and the summer before college is a weird time, but this is the time to take all that sage, old wisdom to heart. You’re not alone in this process just because you’re an “adult” now.
Good luck!