It’s Time to Enjoy Your Senior Spring—You’ve Earned It
Congratulations, seniors! You’ve made it through one of the most vicious admissions cycles to date. You’ve spent precious hours regurgitating the same collegiate phrases and molding your clunky pleas for admission into semi-coherent essays. You’ve groomed every single aspect of your life into one neat, shiny, tight package for admissions officers. You’ve sold your soul to keep your grades up.
Now what?
As juniors, we all dreamed of the elusive “senior spring”: the period of the school year after we submitted our applications, after grades wouldn’t matter, and when we could just have fun. “I’m excited for after January—I have so many things on my bucket list,” said current junior Priyanka Iyer. I, too, had a bucket list—emphasis on had.
Senior year is hell, proclaimed my upperclassmen friends at the end of my junior year. From now until next spring, it’s going to be miserable. So I lived my life knowing that I’d be pulled into a college frenzy, until the fateful day that I submitted my final application. But that day came and went on December 31. It’s been over four months since, and frankly, I don’t feel any different. In fact, I almost feel worse: sluggish, lethargic, losing motivation to complete my homework. Fellow AP Psych scholars might recognize the hallmark symptoms of major depressive disorder, but I believe I’ve fallen victim to the much more prevalent pseudo-illness of senioritis. And I don’t think I’m alone.
When I asked my fellow classmates whether they felt like they were optimizing their senior spring, opinions quickly veered toward the negative. “I think I’m trying my best to have as much fun as I can and do things that I normally wouldn’t do,” said Joanna Liu, a fellow senior. “But I do feel like I’m still kind of stuck in that mindset that LHS gives you, which is that you always have to be grinding and doing your best.” Granted, I asked the question in an AP Calculus BC class—notoriously one of the most difficult math classes offered at LHS, if not the most. Maybe my sample population was skewed (AP Stats reference, anyone?). But even after expanding my horizons, responses overall were the same:
“Absolutely not.”
“No.”
Another senior, Sophie Ren, told me she was trying to have fun, but “it feels kind of weird that I have so much free time that I don’t know what to do with.” I widely agree with her: now that I’m not spending every spare minute researching colleges or polishing my essays, I have hours of open free time. What should I spend those hours on? Homework, the academically inclined might say. Hang out with your friends, the social butterflies would advise. Instead, I often choose quite possibly the worst option: to lay in bed and go on my phone.
And here’s the thing: if I’m not going to do my homework, I might as well just fully commit to having fun. In a time that feels so turbulent, uncertain, and draining, taking small daily adventures can be lifesaving. There is nothing more rewarding than the early morning coffee with friends, or shared laughter in the quad. So here’s my final advice: skip school to go to the beach. Go on that spontaneous weekend trip. Grab breakfast, lunch, and—fine—even dinner with your friends. You’ve earned it.
by JANET LIU