As a senior, our leadership positions in sports, clubs etc are at their peak. The fall season is peak burnout, your college application season starts, you are still trying to maintain your first semester grades for the mid-year report and trying to enjoy your social life. On top of that, your captain position in your sport and president position in your club become clouded in the back of your mind. Sometimes, it’s time to let go.
I’m not encouraging you to quit every passion you have. I just understand why you might. As a stressed out IB senior with a club, college applications, newspaper and more, when my tennis coach told me she was stepping down, I admit I felt a little bit of relief.
Don’t get me wrong, I made so many memories on the team throughout my high school years. But it comes to a time to step down and let the underclassman experience what I felt in the past.
Senior year is a time of prioritizing. If you keep doing everything from your underclassman years, you risk burnout and experiencing senioritis. I believe the only reason why I am not ripping my hair out and quitting school is because I let go of a few of my extracurriculars.
I didn’t trash everything. Instead, I chose what I found was most important and what I wanted to continue doing in college. That way, I am able to still do what I love but not want to end everything all the time. Now, I am able to put all my effort on my few passions.
What I recommend to make your senior year less stressful and more maintainable is to make a list of what you want to keep and what you want to let go of. These extracurriculars can be sorted based on time spent, passion for the activity and/ or leadership positions. I guarantee you will enjoy your last year of high school much more when doing things you actually love, especially in the spring when college applications are all in!
My final takeaway is always choose quality over quantity. Prioritizing what you actually enjoy doing with the people you love is the most important part of senior year!
