Seniors need a final reprieve
(Photo: Comic created by Scout Tatham, The Puma Prensa)
by Maddie Qualls, editor
Whoever said senior year would be “chill” lied. My first semester has not been easy to put it lightly. I am constantly burdened with responsibilities such as schoolwork, extracurriculars and the infamous college applications. I am sleep deprived and always stressed. So I would really appreciate it if I, along with other seniors, could not worry about finals and instead were given much-needed time to dedicate to the college application process.
The beginning of senior year has been a lot. First, I had to adjust to in-person learning after 16 months of doing work from my bed. Then, the August and October SATs were my next challenges. All while the upcoming college applications lingered over my head. Of course, all seniors have different schedules and responsibilities, but I’d say we all have one unifying experience: stress. Senior Komal Aery described experiencing a lot of stress “getting college applications and homework done while maintaining somewhat of a social life.” So the last thing we need to worry about at this point is finals week.
Finals are a painful experience even when school is your top priority—hours of studying, obsessing over those notes that you lost, writing your final papers—but honestly right now school is not at the top of my list. This is not to say that I do not care about my education, rather that I’d prefer if teachers allowed seniors to dedicate this time to college applications.
Applying to colleges has been the most emotionally and mentally draining academic task I have ever experienced. It feels like I am participating in a marathon, but if the miles were essays. It seems like I’ve been working for ages, but then it turns out that I’m not even halfway done. I have spent countless hours writing, and I still have so much more to do. Never in my life have I thought about myself so much, and I’m really not enjoying it. These words that we have to write hold the potential to alter our futures. I am currently too busy trying to make myself sound like a perfect college student to be crushed by finals. Seniors deserve to get a little bit of a break to focus on their futures. After all, we’ve done six rounds of finals at this point; I think we can be spared one.
Recently, I have also barely had the time to actually enjoy my life. When I am not at school, I am participating in all of my extracurriculars, which I also need to get into college, working on homework, or doing my applications. My jaw has been clenched for months. All I want right now is to have the time to do my applications without other worries permeating my mind. *Cough* finals *cough* Please just let us get through college applications without worrying about first-semester finals. Then we’ll hibernate over winter break, maybe even have some fun, and come back with a huge weight off of our shoulders. I promise when I am not worrying about my college decision letters, all of my focus will be on school.