As crazy as it is, another semester of school is coming to an end. Being a senior is not something one can really mentally prepare for; so many emotions about being an upcoming senior exist that it can be hard to really understand.

My friends and I have already discussed what classes we are going to take next year and how easy and fun our senior year is going to be. Others chimed in on our conversation and agreed. But a few  people mentioned how terrified they are going to be. Some are expressing their concerns about what are we going to do after senior year? or what if it’s nothing like we think, and our classes are actually hard? what happens after we graduate? When we move on with our lives and it’s been eighteen years later and we forgot about each other until we are digging through our old memories and come across an old high school picture? What do we do then? I soon realized that a lot of people actually aren’t that excited for senior year, so I decided to ask a few of my own classmates about how they feel about saying goodbye to junior year.

“I am very ready and excited to be a senior at Jacksonville High School. I want to get out of Jacksonville and move on to more things for myself and future. I think senior year will be full of many great things.” -Sydney Rockwell

“I’m scared and anxious.” -Anonymous

“I’m happy to be one step closer to leaving JHS.” -Anonymous

“I’m ready to leave JHS and start my life, but I’m also sad about high school ending because it was a great experience. I’m also scared of what the future will hold for me.”  – Alexis Rich

So as one can see, the junior class has a variety of answers and feelings to becoming the senior class. After listening carefully to everyone’s opinions, I came to a realization: I too am scared of the many possibilities that could happen next year, but I am also very confident in our school, our staff, and our teachers to help further our knowledge about what to do next. I believe that senior year is not only going to be just “school things”; it’s going to help prepare us for the real world. It’ll help us move onto whatever is next. So being one step closer to senior year to me means one step closer to many fantastic memories with my friends, one step closer to experiencing my last firsts, and  one step closer to graduation.