How Senior Year Changed My Life

Senior year hit me like a truck. I went to a summer camp called “Camp Quest,” that is when everything changed. I did not know anyone else attending this camp and taking the social jump to attend scared me more than anything in my life. I had stayed in my comfort zone my whole life, but going to this camp made me step out of it. I had to force myself to actually go talk to people.

I do not think senior year has been turning out like I have always thought of it as going. I have always thought of my senior year being the easiest and most fun year of high school. Yes, I have had fun, but it has not been easy. I have been put through challenges already that I know will prepare me better for college.

Freshman, sophomore, and junior year of high school could never compare to senior year, though these were the years that molded me! I learned about boys. I experienced my first heartbreak. I got great advice from instructors I will never forget. And those years taught me how to forgive, but never

When junior year ended last summer, I felt like I knew exactly what was coming my way-- after all, I watched three different groups of my friends go through senior years of their own. It was finally my turn to experience senior year, something it seemed I had known about for years, and I felt like senior year would be easygoing and uneventful. Now, it has taken just a few short months to realize how incorrect I was. If senior year has taught me anything, it is that one never really knows what comes next for them, even if they have a good idea. The monumental highs, as well as the deepest of lows, have kept me on my toes throughout my senior year.

With a year full of hurdles I was set to overcome, senior year did not seem like the right time for me to defeat my dragon. My introverted qualities have grown tremendously over the course of my life due to traumatic events I have been forced to face on my own. Since adolescence, I have always been known as the “quiet girl” in the room. I always took this as a compliment, until recently, when I realized I was missing out on crucial events that would help prepare me for the future. Through careful consideration, I decided that senior year would be the ideal time to slay my dragon, introversion.

It was the hardest year of my life, but, it is also the most memorable because it has been teaching life lessons like telling the truth or, make friends who won’t use you. The most important life lesson I think I have learned is to never give up on life even though it is got you down. I hope next year is a lot

My senior year has gone by so unbelievably quickly. It had been only four years ago when I first stood in front of the school a mere freshman. Throughout the years I gained a new experience that either made me a more global citizen or better prepared as an academic student. This year has been no exception and I feel ready enough for what’s ahead.

So far, my senior year has been pretty good. I’ve been maintaining my grades and turning things in on time. The start of my senior, to me, has been wonderful. The class I like the most is my first hour co-op class. The class is Culinary Arts. Anything involving food can keep me excited. I know it sounds bad saying that, but you can’t live without it.

It was the stress of junior year that taught me how to focus on a goal, a passion, and a dream and make it a reality. It was the multiple encounters of death during junior year that taught me to value and positively embrace each second of life and use it to make a positive difference in not only my life, but in the lives of families and millions of the less fortuned.

Christmas arrived during my first week home after my discharge from the army. I had been stateside six months, and when I woke up, I felt like I lost my marbles. I mean I wondered if I was an addict, an alcoholic, or insane.

Sophomore year was extremely difficult for me. You know how most people go through a rough patch at some point in their life? Well, that was me all of Sophomore year, everything just seemed too big and scary to deal with, and so I basically put everything off. The guidance counselors always use to say when we were going into high school that we would need to stay on top of things before they started to pile up. I just thought that they were just being dramatic to try and scare us into doing our work, but they really weren’t. By the time I realized this, however, it was a little too late, and I was faced with two options; attend summer school to regain the credit that I had lost, or face my peers when school started up again and be two credits

When I initially began High School I thought internally, this is it, this is the point at which my life changes, this is where school work gets harder, classes get harder, the sports become more advanced, and my evaluations in High School are going to reflect my employment, and universities later on, and everything in my life has finally become a hectic roller coaster. But I know that High School is like a stream because along the way you'll find some trash, go over some harsh spots, discover a whirlpool or two, stagnate for a bit, lastly get to the end of the adventure and acknowledge you have had an awesome ride. I know this without a doubt in light of the reality that back in middle school/ junior high I got awful grades I kept saying to myself every time, that I have to stay focused and get my grades up because my grades in my previous years would follow me through high school. In middle school it was hard for me to remain centered and complete my work, and get decent grades. I had to keep my mind like a sponge and absorb all the details I could in every class.

Senior year: you never see it coming. Before you start high school, you are told that the next four years of your life will be the best times. You are also told that those same 4 years will go by faster than you expect. Going into highschool I never expected it to go by fast. I thought these amazing four years of my life were going to drag on forever. Now I realize that is far from true. I am now a second semester senior and the time clock is almost to zero. Joining orchesis was one of the best things I could have ever done in high school. Being involved in something makes senior year that much harder. Everything you do is your last. You know you're a senior when it is time for you to make the senior chant for show.

Memorial Day of 2012 was the one that stands out the most, and I did not even get to spend it with family. I had a baseball tournament

Losing friends, meeting new people, first job, first car, boyfriend, getting my license. Throughout the last four years of high school I’ve experienced a lot of new things and learned a lot on the way. I remember walking into school on the first day of freshman year; I was thinking that these are going to be a very long couple of years. I was wrong; these past four years have gone by so fast, so I guess my dad was right when he said they’d fly by.