High school is a huge part of everyone’s life. When you first get into high school as a freshman, you think of all the time you’ll have. “Four years, that’s going to be forever.” When senior year finally comes around, you’ll be thinking the opposite.
Senior year is when you start to really take it all in. As much as you want time to slow down, the days seem to just go by faster. You start making more friends, resolving past problems, and really appreciate the time you have left. Senior year is also when you become a legal adult: eighteen years old. You become a part of the real world, figuring things out on your own. All twelve years of school have been leading up to this moment. All your teachers, from preschool to now, have been preparing you for your adult life.
Twelfth grade is arguably the most memorable. This is the time when you start to reflect on all the little things you didn’t think would be memories. That funny moment you had in class, that football game you went to, that party you went to, it will all be a part of life that you look back on and smile. You might even start to feel more confident because you know you won’t see most of these people again. It’s a mixed feeling of sadness and relief, like you’re glad you got to live through that and you feel lucky, but it is all ending. Having this routine for twelve years, and one day it changes into something completely different. People start their careers, make money, buy a house, have a family, etc. It’s the end of one life and the start of a new one. 
As fun as senior year is, this is also the time people start to choose their future. According to Marymount University, “…colleges won’t have access to your grades for the last few months of your senior year. However, they do require a final transcript, which allows them to see whether you finished your high school career strong, or if you slacked off and became careless.” This is why it is important to recognize that you’re still in school, and this is the time to decide what to do with your career. Obviously, it’s important to still be a kid while you can, but if your grades start to slip, you might regret it later. USC Undergraduate Admission Blog states, “Senior year matters because it’s the bridge between who you’ve been and who you’ll eventually be. It’s the year where your choices—academically, personally, and socially—directly shape your path to college and beyond.” This explains that senior year is when you basically decide the path you want to go down.
Here’s what some students at Santiago High School had to say about their favorite part of senior year: “My favorite part is having my license. I like having that freedom of going pretty much anywhere.” – Roman Looney (12). “I enjoyed doing the after-school hangouts, and also all the senior events.” – Bri Liduch (12). “The people”. – Alex Slay (12).
