Over the last four years I’m sure you’ve heard of everything that your senior year will entail: grad bash, college applications, FLVS, AP classes, Dual Enrollment, class rank, senior pictures, graduation, prom, etc. Although every incoming freshman is warned, no one can really explain to you how fast the time goes and how stressful your final year will be.

The final months of senior year, everything is being tied together and big decisions are being made. Depending on your school of choice, acceptances come out in late January to May and choosing the college you want to go to is a tedious and time sensitive topic that inevitably will stress you out to no end.

While preparing for your college career, it is important to remember that your high school career is not over until you walk across the stage to get your diploma. The events that occur during your final semester will likely have the most influential impact on your overall high school experience so stay in the moment and enjoy what you’re experiencing.

Now if you are not a senior, prepare yourself to be flooded with questions about your future whenever you talk to an adult. Your neighbor, your family, and even your hair dresser is curious to what you plan to do after graduation. If I could tie an example to it, I would say it’s the equivalent of family members at family gatherings that ask you if you’re in a relationship or how school is going. Whether you have an answer to the question or not, the probing never ends with your response.

Senior Hannah Enoch says “At Christmas I was the main topic throughout the whole holiday. What college I was going to and what I wanted to major in I swear were the only questions that they could think of.” This proves my point further because this happened to her during December, almost a whole eight months before any decision would have to be made.

In most cases, senior year will be your most strenuous in course difficulty level. Many seniors have to fight their bad case of senioritis to ensure they don’t ruin their GPA by slacking off in the remaining quarters in their AP, honor, and Dual Enrollment classes. Now if you haven’t thought about your class rank until now, it isn’t pragmatic to start in the third or fourth quarter. Though it can be done, most students are also trying to take those extra courses to give their GPA an additional boost to give them the upper hand in their applications and there is only so much you can do to help at that point.

An upside to your final semester is that Newsome rewards those that come to school. If you don’t want to take your senior exams you only have to do a couple things to make sure you don’t have to take them: have no more than five absences per class, no ISS, and no OSS. This takes a toll on all of the students that are used to being signed in and out regularly. Although not a requirement, no one wants to come back after their final day of high school to take final exams.

In the beginning of the school year, each senior attends an informational assembly on a timeline of when things need to be completed by. A synopsis of the meeting is that graduation announcements and buying your cap and gown can be done together through Herff Jones, yearbook pictures have to be scheduled, and if you haven’t gotten a class ring yet, the deadline is closing.

There are countless things that must be done during senior year and nothing but planning and being aware of due dates can prepare you for it, I wish all seniors the best of luck nearing the decisions to be made and underclassmen, I recommend planning ahead to minimize your stress for your last year.