Don’t worry, this isn’t an informational article retelling the dates of important senior events. I’m sure you have the Senior Dinner date ingrained into your head by now. This is just a reminder from one senior to a whole class that you are almost there, but it is important to not only cherish the last few months that you have left at this once-in-a-lifetime experience of high school but to not become apathetic to the responsibilities you have now and in the future. There is much to celebrate by the time senior year rolls around and at this point you’re more than halfway through, but there’s still plenty left to take responsibility for and to plan out for the nearing future, so this will serve as a helpful reminder for things to be mindful of. 

School Isn’t Over

Yes, the mid-point of the year has long passed with the recent mid-winter recess, but that isn’t a call to stop working as hard as you have hopefully been doing. This applies to students taking general classes as much as it does AP classes, as while AP students may have a hefty workload, the difficulty isn’t solely excluded from non-AP courses. Colleges predominantly inspect one’s junior year, but the senior year is just as important if not even more so. It can show development as a student if the grades continue in the positive trajectory outlined by junior year, or it can display a lack of care and motivation from a student if grades from junior year are plummeting during your senior year (as most schools will get your mid-year and end of the year transcript). This can lead to possible college rejections or even rescinded from a college you were accepted into earlier. This also allows you to present yourself as a hard worker if your grades weren’t too great in your junior year, for if your senior year grades shine, that shine is reflected upon you. Just make sure you make every effort to accomplish the work you have left (and don’t skimp out on AP exams either, you can skip some college classes if you pass them). 

Don’t Burn Out Yet

For those suffering the opposite effect and are overworking themselves during the last few months of high school, take a break. Not from all of your work or responsibilities, but from that work ethic you’ve put yourself through for these past few years. Two months won’t be enough time to rest your mind for college if you burn out after hours of studying and extra credit assignments that you probably don’t need to do. Yes, if you’re failing or falling behind, take the time to make up for your lost or incomplete work, but make sure you realize that this is the last time you will be in such a state of juvenile freedom in your life. If you work or have familial responsibilities, the situation is different, but if you have the time to spare that is being used up by writing way too much on your assignments or over-contemplating whether or not your answers are right, avoid it as best you can. This is a period in which you should be spending as much time with your friends, family, and other such acquaintances as possible, especially if you are going away for college. The next time you’ll get to see them after summer is winter break (or Thanksgiving depending on the duration of the break), so make the most of what you have now with them. Make the most of yourself as well, to do the things you’ve wanted to do but seemingly never had the time for, try new experiences to prime yourself for college or any other such path you may walk down in the future, and become open-minded to different ways of thinking, processing, and doing that will help you as you go down such a path. Whether it be college, work, trade school, or the unknown, make sure you know yourself before you dive deep into these ventures that will dictate the rest of your life. 

Have Fun (and ways to do so)

If you are like me and hardly know yourself or your interests because of how much life school has sucked out of you (kidding), I’ll offer up some ideas that may sound fun. Or they may be completely idiotic. Or stereotypical, but usually the stereotypical ‘‘fun-before-college¨ ideas are on most bucket lists so why not?

• Make a senior year mixtape (or CD) based on music you’ve listened to during your high school years that you’d love to remember 20 years from now. Genre blending or making it exclusive to one genre is up to you. 

• Have at least one beach day with friends. To be in the ocean with your friends, flailing around while the waves slap you in your face. That’s bliss.

• Travel to another state, whether it be with family or friends. Even if it’s to New Jersey, traveling can give you a better perspective of the many possibilities that you will have in your life after high school has ended. 

• Make a college checklist/go shopping for college necessities. If you are going away for college, you need to make sure you are ready to live comfortably in the dorm you stay in for two semesters. You will be limited in the amount of resources you have, but you can still emulate how you live now with proper preparation. 

• Watch coming-of-age or senior-year movies. Those types of films always get me excited for the potential possibilities that await me after the year has ended while making me grateful for what I did do during these past four years, so indulge in ‘‘The Breakfast Club¨, ‘‘Boyhood´´, or ‘‘Dazed and Confused´´ (if you want a newer one, ‘‘Everybody Wants Some´´ is especially good if you’re going to college). 

• Spend time with friends. Whether it be a concert, going to the movies, eating out, or whatever you do, you will be away from most of them for a long time. It might be the last time you truly have time to spend with them without much care of what you have to come home to, so make the most out of this melancholic pocket of time you have left with those that you love the most. 

• Stay in touch with those you care about. This can be applied to friends, family, and teachers. Everyone has at least one teacher who has greatly inspired them, so making you remain in contact with them after you graduate is a way to ensure that you will always have someone in your corner academically and/or career-wise. 

• Don’t stress. Stress is the killer of fun and good times, so make sure you don’t worry too much. Be sad, feel what you have to feel, but remove the sense of worry we all instinctively contain, as you will regret your worries clouding your mind from the great times you had and will have shortly.