photo: elisasizzle/ BY-NC-SA

By Henry Quintana 

Ever since I was a freshman, I would hear seniors complain about how senior year is so difficult and how much of a pain it can be. I would always think to myself “senior year is so far away, I still have time before I go completely insane like them”. Wrong! Senior year came so fast and the madness began. Being so determined to get accepted to my dream school U.C. Davis I once again loaded my self with more challenging classes. I took A.P. classes such as English, government, and calculus along with joining leadership/ ASB for my second year. I also added a part-time job to the mix. I then threw it all in to a 6-period schedule instead of the 4-block schedule I was so used to. Once I was getting the hang of it, November came and college applications completely threw me off. The stress began and I had to make the choice of where I want to spend the next four years of my life.

After hours of long, excruciating online applications, I was done with college apps and it was time for the part that’s probably even worse than the actual application process: the wait. Since November, I’ve experienced the ongoing anxiety that plagues seniors from November to march, when acceptance letters go out. I’m constantly thinking to myself “what if I didn’t get in to the school I wanted?” “How am I going to pay for college?” “What’s my plan b?” Now that I’m done with the college applications and there’s nothing else to do but wait for those acceptance letters, I’ve been getting symptoms of that deadly disease that strikes seniors every year. Of course I’m talking about senioritis. I’m starting to feel burnt out from all the stress and hard work that I’ve put in during the last 4 years and I’ve been fighting off the urge to just care a little less about grades and just care about having fun for the rest of the year. I know that this is going to be inevitable if I get in to U.C. Davis, seeing as how my goal will have been reached and the senioritis will hit full-on. Until then, I will keep doing what I’m doing and then see how I will deal with that deadly senioritis.