Senior Stories
It’s been a very busy week. The school year is finally drawing to a close, the senior class of 2025 just graduated, and another birthday came and went, along with my very favorite month of the year.
With all of these endings, it made me think about what it’s been like teaching seniors for the past 17 years and why it takes a certain kind of individual to tolerate the “senioritis” (which is a very real thing) and have thick enough skin to handle their “know it all” attitude. It’s not easy to teach them, but it’s not easy to be a senior either. Part of you is scared to death to know that in less than a year you will be required to make your own decisions and can’t blame someone else for holding you back. That’s a ton of pressure. They’ve spent their entire lives blaming someone else for their own problems. You made them come home early or you maybe you allowed to them to stay out as long as they liked so you were too lenient versus the strict, structured parents who policed their seniors’ every move. Now they have to be held accountable. Some of them understand that, but there is always one or two who will still try to escape any type of accountability. You can’t help those individuals. I always hope that maybe life will teach them a lesson.
What I have found is that even though seniors may drive me a bit crazy, I do understand perhaps a little bit of why they have to display the bravado of having it all together, of knowing more than their obvious more experienced, older adults in their lives. How else would they leave? They have to have what I call the “senior arrogance” to disintegrate those apron strings still attaching them to their familial nests. They have to think we are all idiots because why else would they leave? It’s this false confidence that allows them to move away and make their own decisions and ultimately, a few or many mistakes. It’s also what allows some to come back later in life and apologize or at last acknowledge their atrocious teenage behavior. Don’t worry, I’m not making that guarantee. Some people refuse to admit they were wrong regardless of their age or circumstances. What I do know is that everything that was once familiar will be replaced with new everything whether they like it or not and it’s what they decide to do with this new chapter that will ultimately determine the course and direction of their new life. It’s refreshing when I have one of my past graduates tell me about the woes of being an adult and then occasionally, once in a great while, I will have some apologize for their “senior arrogance.” I don’t hold it against them. How can I when I know how harsh life can be, especially when you think you have it all figured out. None of us do. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. They’re lying. Life is tough, but it can also be a great adventure full of memorable stories. I hope each of these graduates takes the time to be the protagonist of their own story and remember that nothing is a mistake; it’s not good or bad, black or white, it’s how they respond to it that matters in the end.
