Senior privilege, driving privilege, parking privilege. Senior
year all comes down to one word: freedom. Nothing feels better than waking up
that first morning before school and remembering that you won’t be taking the
bus or suffering through the ever so embarrassing “parent drop off”. For the
majority of seniors, we kiss the green bus passes goodbye and eagerly welcome
our newly acquired licenses. We welcome the freedom of being able to spend off
periods in a setting of our choice rather than being cooped up in a cafeteria
or the lecture hall. We embrace all the senior advantages that aid us in
transitioning from our teen years to adulthood.
As you enter high school as a freshmen you don’t realize
how greatly your first three years will differ from your fourth. Sure, your
first year at Farmingdale High School is incredibly liberating compared to the
prior years spent in middle school where you were required to sign out during
lunch just to go to the bathroom or forced to remain on the blacktop at recess.
But even throughout your sophomore and junior years students are still tied
down with semi-serious regulations and protocols. Hall passes are still
mandatory, bathroom trips over five minutes long are frowned upon, leaving the
building is strictly prohibited. Being anything lower than a senior in high
school is like dipping your toe into the pond of freedom; you can feel the
water but have not yet been submerged.
Once senior years comes around everything changes. It’s a
bit unnerving at first to adjust to all the newly obtained freedoms. Students
with early off periods have to learn to adjust to waking up an hour later than
normal. Though it is certainly not an unpleasant alteration, it still makes an
immense difference to their daily routines. On the flip side, a handful of
students also have to adapt to ending their school days early. For some this
means getting a jump start on a long night’s worth of homework. Others use this
additional time to their advantage by stealing an afternoon snooze or simply
lounging on a sofa, idly watching television. If used properly and efficiently,
this extra down time helps alleviate a great amount of stress that comes along
with senior year such as the common application, college letters, and
maintaining good grades.
Senior year is the first step in each teenager’s life towards
developing a sense of independence. As the year progresses and college becomes
more and more of a reality, the seniors grow into their individuality and true
characters. This essential change occurs while this group of teenagers also
plans for the final and perhaps best memories high school has to offer; senior
privilege is only the first taste.
~Robyn Borstelmann
