The end of the semester means finals, Christmas break, and the start of winter sports for most of the Jacksonville High School students. For a handful of seniors though, it means ending a huge chapter in their life and beginning a new one.
Every year, a small group of seniors graduate early. In order to graduate early, seniors must meet all of the graduation requirements that everyone else must meet. Graduating early means that you only attend high school for the first semester of your senior year, but you can still walk at the graduation ceremony in the spring.
There are 19 early graduates in the class of 2013. Many of those early graduates have noticed the same reactions about their decision to graduate early from the people they have encountered. For example, many of them have noticed that their peers assume that when one graduates early, they will be lazy for the entire semester because they don’t have to come to Jacksonville High School every day. But for most, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The majority of the early graduates will continue their education next semester and are ready and prepared for the future.
“I’m ready for my future and to go onto the next step in my life, which is college,” said Aungelica McGee. “I’ll be going to Lincoln Land Community College for the first two years to get my associates degree. Then I am planning on transferring to Illinois State University in Bloomington.”
Jensen Flinn will be attending Lincoln Land Community College next semester, too. “I am ready to move on to college and take pre-nursing classes,” Flinn said. “But I will definitely miss some of the teachers.”
Some of the early graduates will also be spending a lot of time working next semester.
“I am most excited for the new atmosphere and I’m happy I will be getting a head start on college classes,” said Allie Behrends. “I’ll be keeping myself busy with a full load of classes at Lincoln Land Community College and working.”
“I’m going to miss my friends, but I’m ready to be out of high school,” said Evan Crow. “I’m going to be working and joining the military. I’m just ready to begin my life.”
No matter what the early graduates will be doing next semester, each one is confident that graduating early was the best path to take.