#7 – Senior Year

Senior year, a time of dread and stress for most seniors. Growing up, I always looked forward to my senior year because I assumed that I would be freed from meandering middle school years, and the hardest part of high school years would come to a close. The notion of university rarely crossed my mind. Now that I’m finally a senior, I realize I couldn’t have been more wrong. With all the college essays to write in addition to regular school classes and fencing practice, my life is overflowing with to-do lists. 

A typical school day varies drastically for me depending on what day it is. On lucky days, I’ll be home by 3:30 PM, but on sad days (as I call them), I’ll be at school for 11 hours from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. 

I’ve come to appreciate the lucky days more and more because I can add more diversity to my daily activities. As soon as I come home, I usually do a workout consisting of either weight training or fencing drills. With the Fortune tournament already coming up next week however, I’ve been exhausting my legs with fencing drills for the past week. After the workout and a quick shower, my favorite time of the day arrives. Dinner’s on the table and I get to enjoy some TV shows or Youtube while eating before I lock myself up in my room for the next 4-5 hours. In past years, homework would just consist of whatever was assigned at school and studying for tests. I now have to worry about editing my common app and supplemental essays along with everything else which I seem to leave to the last moment. Most weekdays follow this routine that, for the most part, hasn’t changed drastically. My weekends, however, are what have been most affected throughout this college application process.

Until this year, weekends have always been what I mostly looked forward to other than vacations. I would have ample time to finish my homework and relax with a movie or hang out with friends and family. Weekends are now just “opportunities” to buckle down to finish my schoolwork early just so that I can spend even more time on writing and working on my college applications.  Sadly, there is no joy in finishing my schoolwork any longer. Although this disappointed me at first, I’ve learned to accept it and live with the fact that my life will not be fun for at least another few months.

From now until January 2022, I see a lot of college essays, schoolwork, and fencing practice. What I, as a 13-year-old teen, had expected of my high school senior year has been completely disproven, but I hope for the best.  Just a few more months of hard work, rewrites, and concerted efforts – it surely will help pave the road to my future.