“Senior year will be the best year ever!” they said. “It’ll be a breeze compared to junior year!” they promised.

Well, the year that was supposed to be carefree and enjoyable is not turning out to what I thought it would be like. Yes, we still have to keep up with homework and tests, but now a job schedule and other responsibilities can put some major stress on seniors, including myself. Not to mention the overwhelming idea of our future. Applying to college is a huge affair senior year, and it seems as though the applications and essays and recommendation letters just keep coming. And once you finally are accepted to a college, they hold your acceptance, or scholarships if you earn any, based on your semester or final grades.

All of these reasons point to why you hear seniors complaining daily about waiting for what seems like an eternity to hear back from colleges, staying up late to study for that AP test, and worrying about how they will balance their homework load and their job schedule.

As a senior myself, I feel the same way. Keeping my grades up is still a daily struggle, and I’m not alone in the feeling that senior year is challenging.

Kirsten Hatton, a Senior and track runner at North Penn High School, believes the beginning of senior year was the most difficult time so far as being one of the top dogs in the school.

“I think college apps in the beginning of the year were really stressful and hard to keep up with. Now waiting for your acceptance is just as hard, because you want to get into a certain school so badly, but it all rests in the hands of that acceptance letter.”

Hatton worried about college “apps”, and I would have to agree with her; applying to college is probably the scariest part of being a senior. Thinking about all the decisions you’ve made in the past three years; whether you studied enough for that test or decided to do your homework or turned in that project on time. All those assignments catch up with you and a simple homework grade can be the deciding factor of getting into your dream school or getting rejected.

Teachers also put emphasis on doing well your senior year. I have had multiple teachers say in class, “This is what college classes will be like. I am preparing you for the future.” Coming straight from junior year, which was the most taxing full year of my life so far, entering North Penn as a senior this past September made me feel accomplished and that I was in for an easy last year of high school. But with all the responsibilities a senior accumulates that I wasn’t aware of, it’s that much harder to wait until that magical day when we receive our diplomas.

Yes, high school has been a good ride, but when I hear adults say “High school was the best time of my life”, I can’t help but wonder why, because I know about the difficulties that come along with being a student. Maybe it’s just the first semester, but as of now, senior year is very challenging as an average student, and that ever present saying that keeps running through my head of “senior year is the best year of high school”, cannot seem more distant.