With the Senior Class of 2023 graduating in a day’s time, the nerves of the juniors who will soon be put in the same position are on the rise. It’s exciting, don’t get me wrong, but it’s absolutely terrifying and stressful to think of all the planning and photos required throughout the year. For the past three years that I’ve been in high school, it was always easy to adjust to a new grade or new classes after a little while but realizing now that I’m about to enter my very last and most important year of high school is scary.

I’m scared to go to college, apply for college, scared to prepare for all and every event that senior year offers, and go to those events. It’s really thrilling knowing that the last year of school Dakota offers is going to be fun and end on a happy note, but it’s the thought of going out into the real world fully, as an adult, and having to chose what I’m going to do with the rest of my life afterwards that’s nerve wrecking (and extremely emotional too).

The advantage of having an older sibling helps to lessen the nerves, especially when you get to witness how their senior year went and the steps they took to graduate. Applying to college, as much as it seem scary, is super easy unless you have to write essays. Senior pictures and financial stuff are mostly left to parents, and I got to witness how the process of planning and picking photos went. Knowing that I would follow those very steps in less than a year, getting to experience it for myself instead of from afar, gives me a sense of reassurance that everything will be fine. And it will.

It’s exciting at most, terrifying at the least, but that’s how it is every year. The only difference is that this time, is the last (for high school at least). Junior year was amazing, upsetting, and the best year of school that I’ve fully got to experience since before covid. And again, I am nervous for what’s to come in my Senior year, but I know it’ll be way better.