Today, I feel wholly inadequate. You know that feeling of just being blah and slightly discontent, but without major cause? As my friends from college came home over the break, they all seemed so put-together. They seemed so grown up and content with their lives; it seemed there was no way they could have been in my place just a year or two ago.

I, on the other hand, entered the halls after holiday break for the last time as a student at Hockaday. Though I’m making plans for my future, I’m not quite ready to leave this place behind.

In just a few days my fellow classmates and I will be second semester seniors. Often in modern America, “second semester senior” is a term considered synonymous to “unfocused and lazy”, but that’s not what it really is about. Clearly, I am no expert on the life of the “second semester senior” so, I talked to a few recent graduates I know who I figured might have more experience in the area.

Take a few pictures of the day-to-day Hockaday life. We take pictures with our friends at Winter Formal and Sports Senior Nights, but we so often forget that in just a few months, saddle oxfords and plaid skirts will not be our norm. Try to capture a few pictures of the mundane because as one recent alumna puts it, “at the end of the day, that is the part you are going to miss the most.”

We often take for granted the time we get together as a senior class daily. However, after May 28 we will never be a complete 123 again. Enjoy the conversations now, get to know the people around you. We get another few months to be together and then it will be time for us to go our separate ways. Don’t rush the process.

Capture pictures of the mundane because…”At the end of the day, that is the part you are going to miss the most.”

Remember to put down the books at times. We will get the papers written even if they are typed the night before. As one alumna says, “this is your time to enjoy Hockaday.” We have studied hard together, but let’s make sure that we remember more than formulas after our time together.

So, here we are at halftime. We must build off the success of our first semester of senior year. And let us not forgot to have the tenacity to tweak the pieces of this year that we want to do differently. I will leave you will one last piece of advice from the alumnae, the true “second semester senior” experts.

“Your last semester at Hockaday is going to fly by so quickly and you do not want to waste any of it not being in the present. Give Hockaday and all the work you did there what it is owed, and stick it out till the end.”

Sincerely,

Senior

Sincerely, Senior is a blog focusing on senior experiences and is managed weekly by Castoff Editor Austria Arnold. 

Commentaries are the expressed opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of The Fourcast staff, its adviser or any member of the Hockaday community.