Period Of Translucence: Overcoming Obstacles In Life

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.

They have been trapped in high school for almost four years now. They trudge through every day, not paying much attention to the time that is flying by. It hasn’t occurred to them how soon they will be out of the prison called high school…until now. Most, if not all, seniors catch a case of senioritis early or mid-term in their senior year. Once they have caught senioritis, there is little hope that they will recover, at least not until they receive their high school diploma. Upon catching senioritis, students no longer find joy in the day to day attending of classes. The seniors begin to realize that half of the classes that they are taking won’t matter in the long run of their career ambitions. The awe and terror of what high school was before they started now starts to crumble at the foundation. There are a few exceptions to the contraction of this horrid disease, however. Seniors who get involved come to appreciate the fact that they will no longer be able to attend high

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

The thought of college is often overwhelming and fills a person’s head full of anxiety and stress. If you look back on what you have accomplished up to this point in your life this large step in life suddenly seems much smaller. I have been going to the same small private school all my life so many people could argue that I have been sheltered for most of my life or see the world through “tunnel vision.” Now all of this is entirely true, but throughout my high school years I have gradually become more of the person who I am today. For example, my junior year English teacher assigned my class the daunting task of a junior thesis. At first I thought this assignment was simply busy work and had no meaning to it, but as I began to pick a topic and research it I began to discover a possible

College pressures dominate our lives. They begin to levitate around us and slowly derail our lives. William Zinsser elaborates about the college pressures that modern generations are facing. He reveals multiple commonalities that the typical college student encounters on a daily basis. Zinsser states, “They want a map-right now-that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, social security, and presumably, a prepaid grave” (12). He is spot on, the pressures demand my attention and won’t take no for an answer. So far I’ve gone head to head with these pressures every day since I started my freshman year in college. For the time that I’ve been here, my mind is overwhelmed and distraught with the amount of stress that gets piled on top of me every single day. I drown in these unrealistic expectations written in those faulty suggestion bars about how to be successful in college and college 101 tips. College pressures surround me like a dull gray cloud. It showers me with expectations and unfinished checklists. College itself is similar to carpooling to hell and back, but with no actual guarantee with a ride back.

Being a senior I had already expected that life won’t go that easy. Throughout my Junior year I was being prepared through my AVID class and from all the different articles, and activities we did in class. Kind of reality hasn’t hit me yet, I was making a huge list that marks all I wanted to accomplish in my senior year. But there is this thing called ‘stress’ that is invented and it began to slowly eating my brain away. Just a little stressed what I tell everyone who ask how am I doing. Stress is something we all need to be prepared for in our early stages in life but we can’t help it due to many trials and tribulations that come in our everyday life. For high school seniors like me some of them already developed this disease called, ‘senioritis’ if you haven’t known yet it's a disease that affects your mind, and body from being able to function properly due to the amount loads of work that you have to do. Well if you have good time

Who knew High School would be over in a blink of an eye? Four short years and a whole chapter of your life is over. The goal everyone was striving to achieve was completed, yet an even bigger thing was approaching “Life”. All 365 of us would venture out into the world and start new journeys hundreds of miles apart.

Although in the past four years at Roanoke Valley Early College (RVEC) I have grumbled about how long I have been in the program and mentioned being ready to graduate almost everyday, writing this paper almost feels like a farewell. A bittersweet moment that I can safely say I deserve because of how hard I worked towards seeing this year all come together. The best way to describe is stunning. I would almost always hear any and everyone say that senior year comes up fast and I now know that they were not joking even a little. During my time at Roanoke Valley Early College I have evolved into a person that I am proud to call myself through my internship, staff members, career aspirations, and individual improvement.

Suddenly Senioritis hits students like a freight train. Why would a student who planned on being a English major or a lawyer even want to think about taking a calculus class? Is there a reason for a future college professor to be taking classes on animal sciences? Seniors begin to get a sense of frustration that they were led to believe that those classes were needed. This realization will cause seniors to skip classes they don’t like. We start to count down the days until graduation, like how middle school kids would count down the seconds before the final bell would ring in the last class of the day. The clocks seem to be slowed down, as time drags on for the seniors who just want to move on with their lives. High school classes just don’t seem to hold seniors’ interests after senioritis

College life is an exciting time for young adults coming out of high school. The students find themselves with so many new experiences to face; many of these changes, from new found freedom to the unexpected responsibilities, are frequently underestimated by the newly promoted freshman.

It wasn’t uncommon to stay at work past three in the morning, regardless of school. After a twelve hour shift every night, I struggled with being coherent for class, my eyes formed bags, and lunch had become nap time. Senior year arrived and I’d be doing all my homework at the bar or on the pooltable. I was in a self conflicting battle between my love of work, money, and struggle to graduate. Anxiety had gotten so unbearable, it led to my single worst panic attack of my life. I reluctantly gave my farewell to the strip club and waitressed at a mexican restaurant; which barely paid my bills, and certainly wasn’t contributing to savings for college. Grades improved and I slept more, but life felt

It was 2016, and I was finally a senior in high school. Being a senior in high school was something that I had dreamed of since my early middle school days, and at last, I was there. It was the last year in one of my least favorite environments, and I couldn’t wait to graduate and move away from the only place I had ever known. I had lived in the same town for seventeen years, and I had gone to the same school with the same people for thirteen years. I was looking forward to something new in my life. I was most excited for my senior year because it was the year that I was going to choose where I wanted to move away to and what school I wanted to spend the next four years of my life at. As the year moved along, I slowly realized that I wasn’t moving away and that I’d be staying home to attend college, which was one of the most difficult decisions that I ever had to make.

According to Lupien, McEwan, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), going off to college involves significant adjustments to their daily routines; sleeping and eating habits, time-management skills, and stress levels will be altered in one way or another. First-year students have to adjust to the new school environment, different social settings, and new schedules, all without the help and guidance from their parents, who have been there for them for eighteen years. Over 30% of college freshman report that they feel overwhelmed (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010), where some students even opt to work as they juggle their class and work schedules. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved in society in a positive manner, allowing contribution of their ideals and values to others.

Now that I am reaching the end of my undergraduate career I feel like it’s fit to reflect on how far i’ve come and some high and low points during this time of my life. Some people may say that these four years of college are the most wonderful times of their life, and for the most part that is correct. But there is this whole other part of college life that is super stressful and even scary. During this paper I will address my personal development and how certain experiences played a role in those developments. Even though I feel like i’ve grown a lot and have developed and learned new things, I have run into some issues. Those issues being family/culture, social and emotional growth, intellectual growth, values and beliefs, citizen and community member.

With an increased demand for skilled labors, many students nowadays find themselves needing to complete some form of higher education at college to ensure their success in the workplace and their future career goals. Although freshmen students often enter college with high expectations and ambitions, many eventually drop out of college. Why does that happen? In an ever-changing and more competitive environment, the demanding expectations on college students now soar at unprecedented heights, creating stressful and unpleasant experiences for many of them as they try to keep up with all the burdens inflicted upon them. In their writings, Dr. Christine B. Whelan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alan Schwartz, and Nisha Ramachandran explore and illustrate some of the stress-creating challenges that freshmen struggle with today. Even though many factors contribute to the huge list of problems for first-year students, many of the problems that create stress for college freshmen fall under the categories of academic factors, (what adverb to add) teachers, and personal-life conflicts.