Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Editor-In-Chief
Senior year of high school is one that is often remembered for its countless college applications, unrelenting stress, and ubiquity in teen movies.
Not only is Senior year more engaging and active than the previous three, but many people often describe it as one of the best years of their lives.
As determined as we all are to grow up and move on to a new phase in life, senior year serves as a melancholy goodbye to childhood and an exhilarating greeting to adulthood. By now, many of us drive, work jobs, date, and are becoming independent young adults by the day.
However, it would be unfair to dismiss senior year as simply a transitional period into the real world. What makes this year special compared to all the rest is not just its proximity to college, but its many traditions and events exclusive to new seniors.
If you ask your parents about High School, they would probably begin to rattle off their extensive achievements and triumphs. But what they probably would remember most is the EVENTS. Prom, graduation, senior portraits, etc. Short experiences that have stood the test of time in their mind ever since.
While movies and television shows do make high school out to be more illustrious than it really is, what you do in your senior year can end up shaping your path in life more than any other year before.
This morning, Trumbull High School had one of its first senior traditions of the year with Senior Sunrise. As pancakes were served and the sun flashed its warm smile through the begrudging clouds, hundreds of seniors went to celebrate their past 4 years of adolescence.
Just as the sun will rise, the students will too, as the promise of senior year is tempered with the nostalgia of their past three years of life. Only more events will follow as landmark after landmark is made in each student’s journey. However, as special as this journey is, the biggest mistake seniors make is getting too far ahead. As exciting as the prospect of college and the future is, it can cause students to miss the amazing moments that are happening in front of them.
Because senior year marks not just the end of high school, but the end of your first major stage of life. The first 18 years of your life are vastly different then the ones you will live after. Up until we graduate high school, most people are coddled by those around them. They receive financial, emotional, and physical support and are mostly dependent on those around them. As soon as people are thrown out in the real world, they are forced to survive on their own without the same treatment they have seen their entire lives.
Senior year is the last chance for adolescents to develop the independence and the skills to thrive on their own in the real world. Those who do become fully functioning members of society who live their own lives. Those who don’t become isolated, sad individuals who live their lives dependent on others. Senior year becomes the culmination of the beautiful nostalgia of childhood crossed with the anxiety-provoking possibility of the future.
When you reach your senior year, no matter how wrapped up you are in your future, never forget about the memories of your childhood. And no matter how content you may be in your current life, never forget to plan for the future. Yet another class of Trumbull High Seniors will come and go this year. Such is the way of life. But with the training and experiences they have received, not just at Trumbull High but in every aspect of their lives, they will be ready and prepared to take on the challenges of the real world no matter what may be thrown their way.
Photo courtesy: atmtx CC BY-NC-ND 2.0