Senior year. This is it. And it's amazing. I can't express how comfortable of a transition it was back to the daily school schedule, despite my copious summer adventures that I will miss having. I felt the same way the first day of classes this year as my first day as a freshman at St. Marys: excited, nervous, and hopeful. The start of a new year provides promises of meaningful experiences inside and out of the classroom, and I am nothing but ready to embrace them all. In reality the workload was tossed on pretty quickly, but I've adjusted to that pretty well the past few years. What really reminded me of why I love being here so much was the Welcome Back Assembly. The ASB put on an awesome performance, and the teachers danced to "Safe and Sound" with their iPads. The special effects they implemented, using different colors on their ipads to dance and spell out SMA in the end, was rather impressive. This is what makes St. Mary's so unique, we get the pleasure of watching and cheering on all of our teachers as they dance (sometimes foolishly) to a poppy song. It is definitely one of my favorite parts of the year, and it saddens me to know that I saw my final dance number a few weeks ago.
The hardest part to manage this year has been implementing my college application work into my schedule. I am so tight on time with homework and my extra curriculars that it is difficult to squeeze in time to think about my future. I am applying early decision and early action, which on the positive side means that I will be done with my college duties and know where I'm going before Christmas break. The college process can be a bit stressful, but with plenty of college counselor meetings and good time management, I should be able to finish everything I need to. The start of the year has provided me with the hope that my senior year will be successful and enjoyable, and knowing St. Mary's, I am positive that that will happen.
