Since we all started high school, the majority of us have dreamt of finally graduating and moving on with our lives. Every year, you hear about the seniors’ fun activities and college decisions, but when you aren’t a senior, you don’t realize the intense amount of stress and expectations you’ll have when you finally get to 12th grade.

In fact, each year before I became a senior, I said, “I can’t wait to be in 12th grade.” Now that I’m a senior, I wonder if senior year is actually as fun as people make it out to be.

When I was an underclassman, I’d get jealous of the upperclassmen since it seemed like they were finally able to relax and leave in eight months. I would see my brother doing fun activities like Senior Skip Day, Decision Day, and Lumberjack Friday, all of which made me excited for senior year. I ignored the stress that comes with deciding what you want to do once you graduate, and the fact that school work never really stops.

To be brutally honest, I now realize that senior year is a dull event, for the most part. Even though we get senior benefits and can do things that we weren’t allowed to do before, the expectations became stronger. As an underclassmen, no one expects you to fully know what you want to do, but as a senior, it seems like everything is supposed to “click” and that you’ll suddenly know what you want in life.

Now, I am experiencing all my lasts. My last Homecoming, last Lumberjack Friday, last first day of school, last spirit week, and so on. On top of the sadness that comes from these lasts, I’m also dealing with a constant anxiety about where I’m going to be in seven months, and this anxiety has made me hate senior year. Although I had dreamt of senior year, thinking it was going to be the best year of my life, in reality, the anxiety and stress outweighed the fun and excitement. While this year is my last time doing fun activities, they have grown repetitive for us after five long years. Senior year is just branded to seem amazing and fun, when most of it is all the same as the previous school years.

Applying to colleges has to be one of the most stressful things of senior year, especially when you get accepted and eventually have to decide where you’re going to live for the next four years. When I started applying to colleges, the thought of not being good enough was constantly in my head. I looked at my peers and saw how well they were doing on the outside, but I truly believe we all think the same things when it comes to this.

“Applying to college was super stressful. I knew where I wanted to go, but it didn’t matter until decisions came out,” said fellow 2025 senior Claire Wishart. “Waiting for a response created so much anxiety for me. I still had to act relaxed about everything, though,” she added.

The overwhelming pressure of our future is the biggest downside of being a senior, but second to that is senioritis. It is definitely real and impacts me as an individual. First semester was easy for me to get through with some struggles, but second semester is when the senioritis hits you. Coming back after winter break and almost thinking “I graduated” was one of the hardest things about senior year. Having no work and being able to do whatever I wanted during those three weeks of break, I didn’t worry about school and having to go anywhere the next day. I fully believed that I was done with high school, so coming back to different classes and a new routine was incredibly difficult. I got used to having no stress, and the night before school started, it all hit me, and the stress of continued school work and future plans came full force.

Since then, I’ve started to dread coming to school since being home seems less stressful. Yet being in PVCC classes makes it way harder to stay home without constant worry about school work.

Experiencing all the stress and anxiety of both your present and future during senior year has made me believe that the experience is completely overrated. The cons outweigh the pros. Senior year may be branded as the best year of your high school career, but when all is said and done, it’s truly the worst.