A Message From a Senior
by Kate Helander
Since the beginning of the year all I’ve heard is seniors lamenting that our time in high school is coming to an end. Even though we still have seven months left, all of the seniors seem to be frantic, worrying that these next seven months have to live up to every high school stereotype that any teen 80’s movie has included. In the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing people say, “I just want everyone to be friends.” While I agree that having our last year of high school end in a way where all the social barriers are broken down, similar to how the High School Musical trilogy ends with everyone knowing a song and choreographed dance, the question that I have is this: Why haven’t we been making this our mission since freshman year? We all know how quickly the past three years have flown by, so how are we going to accomplish this task in just a mere seven months? What has changed that’s going to make everyone all of a sudden become best friends?
As a senior, the nostalgia has hit me a little, which is somewhat surprising because high school hasn’t exactly been my prime. I find myself thinking, “this is my last first of November!” *tears up a little*. Maybe it’s just all the talk about leaving that makes me emotional, I mean even the guy at the AT&T store asked where I was going to school and if I was excited to finally leave. Of course I’m thrilled to get to start my own, independent life away from my home and family, but there’s this eerie feeling of knowing that this time next year, I will be somewhere else, with completely different people and that the comfort of the familiar will be gone. What’s even weirder though is the fact that the people that I’ve known and seen every day for the past twelve years will be scattered across the country.
As the end of our time in the Westfield Public School System comes closer, it feels as though the class of 2016 has come full circle. After all, that first day of first grade at Franklin Elementary School was filled with the hope of being friends with everyone in the class. Now that mentality is back. If I was a psych major, maybe I would blame this on us wanting to revert back to our childhood as our impending adulthood draws nearer. As we turn eighteen and all of the sudden we realize that (legally) we’re adults, maybe we just are desperate for our last taste of childhood before college. I agree with my peers that I want to make the most out of this year, but at the same time, I think that we need to be more realistic. Chances are you are never going to be liked by everyone, I mean, even Beyonce has haters, and if Queen B can’t accomplish it, then most likely you won’t be able to either.
But maybe, with our last 220 days before graduation, we can just try to be a little bit kinder to one another. I’m not advocating that we all turn into the girl from Mean Girls that suggests baking a cake to bring us together. I’m just saying that chances are we may never see some of these people again, so what do we have to lose at this point with reaching out and being kind? As much as I would love for our grade to become one giant friend group, I know that that just isn’t realistic.
Anyone who knows someone who has graduated has heard, “make the most of this year, because you’ll be gone before you know it,” and I think that we should follow that advice. However, when we graduate we should be telling the freshmen, “make the most of these next four years by showing kindness to everyone and making a positive impact on the people that you’re spending the next 720 days, because they’ll be gone before you know it”.
