By the end of senior year, some seniors have mixed emotions about everything changing. Daisy has mixed emotions. “Happy, because I can start the next chapter of my life with the career I am passionate about. But I also feel sad that I am leaving everything I have ever known behind. Coming to the end of senior year, even though there has been a ton of pressure along the way, I know I am ready to move to the next chapter of my life.”
Audree is also 18. She started off high school thinking she would end up going to college for nursing. But at the age of 16, she became a CNA and started a job at a nearby nursing home. She got experience working with patients and nurses. She then realized that she was not ready to be a nurse. Audree has firsthand experience of the pressures and expectations of a high school senior. “In the last couple of years of high school, I have struggled with focusing on assignments due to difficult circumstances. This has led me to wanting to take a couple of years to find myself and travel.”
Audree is not planning to go to college–at least not right away. “This has led me to take a break from school and proceed with the career I already have. I chose to become a travel CNA because the skills I have now will help me with this program in the future. As I have worked with different travel CNAs, I have learned that I can gain more experience and more money than the job I have now. I realized that college isn’t meant for everyone, and I think that path is not for me, at least not yet. A lot of people do end up going to college for the ‘college experience.’ But I learned that it is not for everyone.”
Both perspectives show some of the stress and pressures that people can go through during this period in their lives. The responses of both Audree and Daisy demonstrate the pressures that some seniors go through, especially about what they will do after high school. Though Audree and Daisy have big decisions to make, there are also other seniors who do not have the privileges that other people do. These perspectives show only two different outcomes of a senior’s decisions. But there are others who do not get these opportunities at all. These two perspectives show that there are many expectations for seniors: but ultimately, they should choose the path that is right for them, not what is expected of them.
