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The Cub

The news site of Ludlow High School

The Cub

The news site of Ludlow High School

The Cub

White Noise: The true senior year experience

Coming into senior year, I was anxious to experience the advantages of being an upperclassman.  In the past, I watched older friends graduate and leave behind a sort of legacy for the younger students in the school. Leaving behind that legacy was something I looked forward to possibly experience myself.  They left behind memories and lessons that I’d like to follow the rest of my life.  Before this school year, I truly looked at senior year and thought it was some sort of wonderland full of fun.  However, what I did not realize about senior year is that it is kind of overrated, and for every fun moment, there seems to be ten moments of stress.

Senior year is essentially broken up into different steps.  First is finishing your testing, such as SATs or ACTs, or perhaps even both.  Not only do these tests rattle the nerves, but they test your patience as you wait for your scores to be released.  And, like myself, you could even wind up a little disappointed in the end, always thinking you could have done better.  Basically, you sit in a room for hours on end taking the most decisive test you will may ever take. Then you are forced to sit at home, day after day, wondering should I have omitted more often? Or telling yourself you should have prepared better than you did.

Then the next step comes. After getting your scores, you now have to collect all the various items one needs to apply for a collegiate education:  recommendations, transcripts, essays, etc. Once this is all piled together, ready to be sent, you then have to apply to colleges, which usually have a fee of some sort. Don’t forget, sending the test scores you received earlier costs money as well, as did actually taking the exam. Then the waiting game starts all over again.  So let’s recap for a moment.  So far we have paid fees to take tests, paid fees to apply to schools, and waited. Emphasis on waited.

A good way to sum up the early half of my senior year has been one giant fee, and I only applied to a few schools.

Next, the battle for scholarships, rears its ugly head. The scholarship season starts in January, and from then on, guidance offices around the country are flooded with forms and students eager to receive some sort of merit while at college. Keep in mind that only Division I programs are allowed to give official athletic scholarships, so unless a top level school is in your future, you won’t really see money for athletics.  However there are plenty of scholarships out there, and seniors every year try to get as many as they can, while they can.  Each scholarship also has either some sort of form to fill out, an essay, or even both.

Take into account that all this is done during your school year. So in addition to writing papers in government class and essays in Major British Authors, seniors also have to go through all the motions of becoming college bound.  I know that this is all part of the responsibilities of being a senior, but it definitely takes away some of the luster.  Perhaps, as seniors, we should give a little warning to the junior class, us saying that senior year may sound exciting, and in truth is nice at times, but overall it is a lot of hard work and preparation.

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About the Contributor
Bobby White, Editor-in-Chief
Bobby White, aka “World’s Greatest Dad,” aka “Bobby Paradise,” is the editor-in-chief of the The Cub as well as a future Olympic gold medalist.  Training all year by weightlifting, three-mile runs, plyometrics, he eagerly awaits his favorite time of the year, Track season, where he will serve his senior season as captain. A thrower, he can be seen usually at practice as one of the last guys to finish his daily mile, but can launch a 12-pound ball over 40 feet.   His love for the sport is only matched by his passion for writing. A four-year vet of The Cub staff, he has a column entitled “White Noise” which has a handful of devoted readers. Bobby truly cherishes the fact that he is part of a newspaper staff that is so unique and memorable and  is proud to be part of a group of people that seeks answers, and has desire to get the truth out there.

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