Dear Knights,

“Click here and your life will be changed forever.”

You’ve been waiting since freshman year to click that button and move on with your life, but when the moment comes, your entire educational career flashes before your eyes. The next four years of every senior’s life depends on clicking the “Submit Application” button.

Freshman year is the year grades start to matter for college transcripts, but that’s about it. There’s not much to do as a freshman when you’re still stuck in the middle school. Next, in sophomore year, one tries to keep his or her GPA up, joins clubs, and tries not to get lost in our huge high school, all the while trying to go to events and have a social life outside of their Honors and AP classes. Junior year is full of college visits, multiple SAT tests, and the usual stress of classes and curricula. Finally, we reach senior year, the exciting time of applying to colleges, getting teacher recommendations, and writing an array of college essays, trying not to fail all of our senior classes in the meantime.

After these four years, the scariest thought is that the rest of our lives are based off of our high school careers.

Some students, like myself, have difficulty deciding what clothes to wear to school, and colleges expect us to decide where we want to spend the next four years of our lives in one click of a button.

Even the feeling of relief and happiness that comes with sending in that final application is short-lived – for then, the waiting period starts. Waiting for colleges to decide how well you look on paper and if your credentials match the school’s expectations is nerve-wracking to say the least.

Six months from now, the entire senior class will know what college they want to attend, or they’ll have some sort of plan for their future.

The reality of entering adulthood is coming quickly; it’s a scary thought to map out your future in the fall of your senior year, but it’s a part of life that every senior is going through.

As stressful and insane this process is, in the end, the outcome is worth it. We’re going to college: we’re moving on, it’s inevitable. The scariest part is that time keeps passing, our lives are moving on, yet our minds and hearts aren’t ready to leave North Penn behind.

Sincerely,

Siena