Reality sets in as seniors look at future as adults

BY DELANEY JORDAN SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

With 56 days until the seniors at Castle View High School walk the Red Rocks Stage at graduation, saying goodbye to 13 years of their lives, many are feeling like time is running out as they look to a future known as “adulthood.”

“It’s very daunting. I didn’t expect it to come so soon,” said senior Misha Syed.

With 13 years in the K-12 education system, countless deadlines met, a solidly developed work ethic, and 20 hours of community service under their belts, one would think these students have been well prepared to move on.

“I am turning 18 in a little over a month, but I don’t feel like an adult,” Syed said. “I am excited to start college because it’s a fresh start and a progression towards my future, but it is a very big change and happening really fast.”

Senior Carter St. Clair said the process is all “bittersweet,” noting she is excited to start new things while at the same time being sad to leave old things behind.

With only two months left in the last year, it is common for students to get senioritis, which is a supposed a iction of students in their nal year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in moti- vation or performance. Castle View stay focused and not let the idea of graduating a ect my motivation and how hard I work. It’s de nitely tempting to stop trying since I have already committed to CU Boulder, but I have to remind myself to nish strong and that I still have AP tests to take,” Syed said.

Senior Kyra Markert said she has been taking challenging classes, and working hard to try and stay on top of schoolwork so she can graduate feeling good about her high school experience. For some seniors, like Alexa Posch, graduation has already come and gone. Each year, a handful of students have taken an early graduation program o ered at Castle View High School. “Since graduating early, I’ve been able to work a lot to be more nancially prepared for college,” Posch said. “I’m planning on pursuing a double major in nance and youth ministry, so I’ve been having nancial talks with my parents before fully committing.”

Early graduation is a unique experience for many reasons, one of them being no longer returning to school with your classmates.

“It didn’t really settle that I had graduated until everyone went back to school [after winter break] and I didn’t,” Posch said. “If I’m being honest, I don’t know if it has truly set in and I won’t until I walk across the stage in May. While that’s a little scary, it also makes me proud of myself for doing how well I did in school and that I have made it this far.”

Posch, who has her heart set on attending Indiana Wesleyan University in the fall, is still nervous for adulthood.

“I think there are a couple of things that I might not be totally prepared to face like cost of living, but I am excited to be able to be more independent,” she said, “I’m scared to leave the familiar. I know so many people here and my family lives here, so it’s hard for me to go to a place 15 hours away with no friends or family around me.”

Posch is not the only one worried about being on their own.

“I am still stressed about [college], even though I know where I’m going. e change in scenery and independence is overwhelming. I know I’ll enjoy [college], but it will be a di cult adjustment for sure,” Syed said.

“Making sure I am self-su cient enough to continue my academic vigor in whatever environment I choose to go in is important to me,” St. Clair added. “I’m worried that I won’t be disciplined enough to maintain a sustainable lifestyle outside of high school and the structure that’s been built for me.”

Some students are welcoming this independence.

“I’ve felt independent for a very long time, so I’m not worried about being entirely on my own, I’m actually excited for it,” Markert said when asked about her feelings towards “adulthood”.

It’s not just the students feeling like time is running out. Castle View Counselor Zac Ross has noticed “a lot of avoidance” as graduation approaches.

“Avoidance and procrastination are probably the two biggest things we’re seeing right now,” he said. “ ere’s also a little bit of panic, mainly around things like community service and kids realizing the short amount of time they have left to complete it.”

Ross said it is common to see general senioritis with students knowing they are close to being done, don’t want to attend school anymore and just wants to be done. Ross, who de nes his job in the “post-grad” world as “assisting students in whatever their goal is after college” including college, trade school, military, work force, and gap years, has a bit of a chaotic few months ahead of him.

“I have about 70 seniors in my caseload, but I also have 260 kids total, so I’m preparing to get our seniors out while also making sure all of my other students are staying on track with academics, helping them with social and emotional things,” he said.

Ross is not alone when he says graduation is “a light at the end of the tunnel for me”.

“It’s a really, really busy season,” he said. “I’m making sure they [seniors] have a plan, so that when they walk across that stage and walk out of that building, they’re not just going o into nothingness, they actually have a solidi ed plan.”

With these newfound plans, students know their mindsets and lifestyles will be shifting with this new chapter of adulthood.

“I think the biggest issue for me today, especially with social media, is body image and how people compare themselves with others,” said Senior Allyson Ferguson. “I think as people mature, they become comfortable with themselves and don’t put themselves down in the same way teenagers do.”

Student Lily Defnet also had some opinions on the changes in society’s issues as she grows older.

“A lot of prominent issues among Americans, like climate change and equality, are necessary in the progression of society. I think it is important to address them,” she said.

Defnet went on to say, “As I grow older, I expect these issues to change as our culture shifts. Historically, we’ve seen American society evolve, accepting ‘radical’ ideas like women’s su rage, racial equality, child labor laws, things like that. As I become an adult, I expect there to be progress made and new issues to emerge.” ese ideals are apparent in the routes of study students are taking .

“I want to study something along the lines of environmental science,” St. Clair said. “I want to study it because I feel like it can make a big di erence in the world around me as I go through life.”

Defnet said as seniors become a new generation of adults, they have to be willing to take on and progress issues facing society.