The Senior Year Experience at AB

All across America, the senior year of high school is idolized as this transformative, bittersweet bridge between childhood and adulthood; a year marked by finality, intense personal growth, and memories that last a lifetime. This reputation is perpetuated by movies like “High School Musical”, “The Breakfast Club”, and “Dead Poet’s Society”, all telling stories of magical and deeply moving high school experiences that stay with the characters forever. However, this abundant representation has created an expectation among seniors, establishing a twisted sense of anxiety about making the most of their senior year, and a pressure to have their experience live up to the movies. To investigate this phenomena, I interviewed several seniors and asked them about their expectations for the year. Later, I followed up with them and the reality of their experience. By comparing expectation to reality, senior year is revealed as more than a cliché “coming of age” story, but a unique, personal journey with both positive and negative aspects that varies from person to person. In the beginning of the year, I began my investigation by asking Acton-Boxborough High School seniors what expectations they had for the year ahead of them. The overwhelming majority of students responded that they were looking forward to major senior events such as Senior dress-up day, Senior Sunrise, Senior Skip Day, and Prom. Among the seniors I interviewed was Leah Koutal who expressed her excitement about “putting experiences first” and Nesha Francis who admitted that her expectations for senior activities were pretty grand. As expected, these expectations aligned heavily with the idealistic way senior year is often portrayed in the media. After these events had passed, I reinterviewed Leah and Nesha and found their experiences differed from their initial hopes. Leah explains, “the time I spent with my friends was more valuable than the traditional senior experiences,” and she even went so far as to say that “the events themselves were negligible, as the people were what made them meaningful”. Nesha echoed this point, admitting that although she expected Prom to be magical, in reality it was “just like any other school event”. By comparing the expectations of these seniors and the reality of their experiences, the value of quintessential senior events is evidently not based on the event itself, but the opportunity it provides for making memories with friends. Along a similar vein, a popular topic of discussion at the beginning of the year was college applications and acceptances. The responses I received mostly fell into one of two categories: stressed or confident. For example, one senior, Divya Sharma, expressed her stress regarding college applications. She shared her hopes that, come the end of the year, the burden would be lifted off of her chest. Laasya Sri Pichuka said that despite college applications, she hoped to “get out of the house” and “have more free time” as the year progressed. When I reconvened with them later in the year, they both reported staggeringly different, yet similar, experiences. In regards to Divya, she commented that though the stress of college applications was not easy, it allowed her to see “people’s true colors” and helped her to become “more self-assured” as she was able to gain a better, more honest understanding of herself and others. She explained that when people are under a lot of stress, superficial relationships are cast aside, allowing one’s true priorities to shine through. This reveal tested her relationships and encouraged her to rely more on herself than others for validation. For Laasya, “things got harder after October”, but she learned to be “kinder with herself” through challenging times. Though these students had different experiences, they were each able to use the challenges of college applications to grow. Whether it was Divya’s internal validation or Laasya’s self compassion, these seniors gained a greater understanding of themselves throughout college application season, proving that it is more than a necessary evil, but a catalyst for self-reflection and personal development. An undercurrent to all the conversations was the perceived finality of senior year and worries regarding the future. Several students such as Nesha Francis and Divya Sharma had concerns regarding smaller issues such as their classes, specifically the lack of friends in them. The anxiety of being “alone” in their classes and that it would “ruin their last year” clouded many student’s minds. Others, such as Isabel Kelly and Lukas Kanics expressed a desire to simply “get through the year” and were focused more broadly on building their futures, as they had to “look at it in a different way” and confront graduation as a reality instead of a fantasy. This confrontation included the more practical parts of college applications such as looking into course catalogs, imagining living on campus, and assessing academic and financial viability. Near the end of the year, the perspectives of these seniors merged into a reflective contemplation of the four years that led up to where they are now. Much of their reflections were coloured by the passing of major events and the impending end of the school year, each day bringing them closer and closer to saying goodbye. Leah reflected on her personal growth, saying that though she changed and learned a lot, she “does not regret her past” as it was “necessary to get where she is now”. Others reflected on their relationships, such as Lucas Kanics who acknowledged, “In one sense I want to leave and get out of here but I also like my friends and teachers”. Overall, the tone of my interviews shifted from expectant and anxious to contemplative and reflective as the year drew to a close. Whether it be glorified senior events, dramatized college decisions, or drawn-out goodbyes, the media portrays a very different senior year than most experience. Through the differences shown between Acton-Boxborough student expectations and their realities, the difference between the senior year portrayed in the media and the reality of high school seniors is revealed. Although the media is proven to exaggerate and distort senior year, it is undeniable that television understands the emotions tied to the final year of high school. Graduating is a major step in growing up, signifying a departure from the kindergarten through twelfth grade system and entrance into the broader world. Regardless of how one experiences their senior year, the importance of it does not diminish. Most cannot recreate movie magic; your own authentic experience is magic enough.