1. 35 Minutes Off Campus For Lunch It is a little short; think about it. By the time we get to the parking lot, drive to our desired restaurant, get in line for the drive-thru, order our food, eat the food, get back to school, find space in the parking lot, get back to class on time. Wooh! We either come late to our class or walk in with food; which most teachers hate. The smell of onions suffusing the air isn’t conducive to learning.

2. College Applications Are A Pain Have been waiting months for your acceptance letter? Friends getting letters and you have gotten nothing? #nopressure

3. Financial Aid/Scholarships Applying for FAFSA and hoping you can get as much money covered for school, the competition is crazy, writing essay after essay is not fun for scholarships. The more scholarships you apply to, the more of a chance you have to get some of that scholarship money. Tip: Make sure you know Mr. Clisham; he knows about all of the scholarships out there!

4. Senior Project It’s not easy to manage a year long project. You must have the required hours, constantly write journal entries, do research; this is required to graduated, so no backing out now!
Some Tips: 1.Start your SP the summer before senior year, it’ll make your life a lot easier, I promise! 2.Some students will use SP as an excuse to sign out and leave for the day. DON’T DO THAT! 3. Independent SP is not easy, stay up to date with the requirements, or March – May will be a nightmare.

5. Fake Friends You may start out by knowing more than half the students in school. Or you may think your closest friend is loyal and keeps all your secrets to themselves. Little do you know, your secrets are being told from ear to ear. What do you do then? Leave them! Don’t let fake friends get in your way. They’ll come and go, but at the end of the day, remember, keeping your circle as small as possible is the best decision to make.

6. AP Classes It’s good to challenge yourself, and getting the college credit is a big check; being able to maintain AP’s with other classes is not that easy. Having after school activities or practices; then coming home after sunset with 20 pages of notes to read doesn’t sound like fun.
Here’s a tip: Add AP Study Seminar to your schedule if you have 2 or more AP classes; it’ll give you a good 45 minutes each day to get focused.

7. Sports Being a student-athlete may help you stay in shape and make more friends, but don’t let it get in the way of your studies; using all of your energy on the court or in the field, then, going home to homework can be one of the most taxing feelings.

8. Licenses It should be a requirement for all seniors to have their permit or license by senior year. It’s really hard to prepare for college knowing that you don’t have the experience of being behind the wheel.

9. Senioritis Kicks In It starts getting to be a habit in the middle of 3rd quarter…all we want to do is sleep, sleep, and sleep! Skipping is one of the major draw backs of Senioritis. Be prepared for the consequences: after school detention, ISA, Saturday School, meeting with the seniors’ administrator, Mr. Laurie.

10. Parking lot problems As big as the parking lot is, we still end up driving in circles until an open parking space is available. We all need parking passes in order to not have to park on the side of the road.

11. Prom First off why is it so expensive for a dress for one night?! I mean, sure getting dolled up is fun, but the amount of the money spent on that one night could be spent for bigger things like college! This isn’t an excuse to not go though! It’s the one dance for which we wait 4 years.

12. Stress Last, but not least! It’s everywhere, and we can’t quite seem to control it. Some may eat their way through stress, or some may find other methods to cope. Do what works best for you to get through this situation, #starbucks. Too much stress leads to slacking, bad attendance or even depression. Don’t let it go to you!!  Tip: Find ways to balance your stress, like going to the gym, or take time to watch a movie with friends.