Walking in the doors of Bellevue West as a freshman is a completely different ball game than walking in as a senior. As a freshman, you are in the dugout waiting for the game to start as your nerves run wild. After waiting for four years, you walk up to bat as a senior and hit a homerun.

Within all four years of high school every student goes through different experiences, and participate in a variety of activities such as athletics, music, and art that shape who they are. In these activities, students from every grade get the chance to work together. It is noticeable that seniors and freshmen students normally don’t interact with each other. Students beginning the high school experience obviously won’t be at the same level as the students preparing to graduate.

Theories always arise about senior students’ hatred for freshmen students. In this day and age those rumors are normally stretched. The fact of the matter is, seniors are in a totally different ball park than freshmen, and that affects any potential relationship between the two grades. While freshmen are trying to adjust to high school, seniors are trying to graduate.

One may notice the fact that seniors try their best to ignore the younger students during the school day. In this case, ignorance may be mistakened for focus. Senior year is extremely important to every student because it is preparing each teenager for the change of a lifetime.

There is one word that will become familiar to each student as they become a senior in high school… Deadlines. Seniors are haunted by deadlines regarding classes, ACT’s, college applications and graduation itself. This array of deadlines can be stressful, causing older students to focus solely on themselves, instead of bonding with freshman.

The importance of a student’s final year in high school can not be stressed enough. It is a time where students are allowed to be selfish regarding their future. Freshman have another four years before they have anything significant in their book of plays, so senior year seems far fetched.

Seniors are normally looked up to by the underclassmen. Regardless of whether the seniors are role models, the responsibility will not push them to be close with the freshmen. Even though the seniors don’t care to be closer with a freshman student, that doesn’t mean hate is involved. At the end of the day, every student is playing on the same team.

Every student’s high school career focuses on the journey to graduation. As each student ventures through a new school year, the idea of graduating becomes reality. The fact of the matter is, seniors are more focused on graduation than making friends with younger students. Each student will have their chance at hitting a homerun when their name is called by the principal and a diploma is in hand.

Chloe Brim
Features Editor