The bell rings, but the day isn’t over. For a senior, that bell means rushing home to complete a multitude of tasks: homework, chores, college applications, or a job outside of their academic career. Juggling so many responsibilities can cause some things to fall to the wayside. This pressure follows seniors into many aspects of their lives, including the new year, a time marked by leaving bad habits behind and manifesting new ones for the future.
With the arrival of the new year comes reflection, new opportunities, and the pressure to make the most out of them.
For seniors especially, the new year serves as a reminder that time is limited and goals feel more urgent than ever.
Senior Johnny Salyer is one of many seniors who set an academic goal at the root of their New Year’s resolutions.
“My New Year’s resolution is to get my GPA up,” Salyer said,
The realization that adulthood is inching closer every day and childhood is slowly stepping down causes students, especially seniors, to look forward. Stepping up with new goals to help them succeed in their near future. Much like Salyer, senior Tayla Trapp said academic performance has taken on added importance as she prepares for her life beyond high school.
“I want to get good grades and graduate in order for me to pursue my dream and go to college,” Trapp said.
Many senior students, including Wendy Cowan, are using the incentive of skipping out on final exams as their motivation to keep showing up. Final exams are a strenuous task that Cowan would rather avoid than risk another responsibility weighing on her shoulders.
“If we only have a few absences, we can miss out on taking the final exams,” Cowan said.
Cowan keeps coming to school because she doesn’t want to add final exams onto her already overflowing workload as she pursues band, cheer, NHS and student council.
With a schedule as plentiful as hers, a life outside of school could fall to be neglected.
But nurturing life outside of school is important for your personal well-being. According to University of Columbia researchers, students involved in activities outside of school are more likely to report higher life satisfaction and optimism and lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms compared with those who don’t participate.
For some students, this task can be difficult.
“It’s not really existent,” Trapp said, “I’m taken up by sports practices or games, and then I go home, I eat, shower, and then I go to bed.”
Trapp wishes she had more free time outside of school, sharing that it often feels repetitive.
“It kind of sucks. Just doing the same thing every single day. I feel like it’s just kind of on repeat,” Trapp said.
The stress of academia can be overwhelming at times when balanced with so many extracurricular activities. With the stress of work, school, and sports, it is important to feel seen in a school environment. Cowan says that she feels seen at school because of the personal connections students form with the teachers.
“Some of the teachers–you get to know them,” said Cowan.
Having a human connection helps lighten the weight of study on some students’ shoulders. According to research conducted by Stanford University, a lack of social connection is a greater detriment to health than obesity, smoking, or even high blood pressure.
World History teacher Alyssa Randall believes that with time and company, a student grows from a piece of paper into a whole being.
“I feel like I started seeing students as people when I got more familiar with them, and I get familiar with what makes them, them, what their interests are, and what they do outside of school,” Randall said.
That shift in perspective, from student to person, is something many students say they need as their identities continue to develop outside of the classroom. Though school demands constant attention, with every year that passes, students are building passion for their lives outside of academics, and many find themselves feeling that the label of “student” is the least authentic label they have.
For senior JayLee Chapman, her identity is tied to her horses. While her commitment overlaps with school through the equestrian team, her connection has grown far deeper than blue ribbons.
“I care most about my horses,” Chapman said. “They’re part of school, but they’re also a part of my identity outside of school. I work with horses during the summer and basically all throughout the year.”
That relationship provides an emotional outlet that school often cannot.
“They’re like a dog mixed with a best friend,” she said. “
Chapman feels most like herself when school can create moments of human connection, her mind and heart open, to receive self-driven interests rather than just instruction. Giving lifelong lessons that carry on past the borders of education.
“I feel most like myself in second hour,” Chapman said. “I get to help in the library and decorate.”
The library, home to Michigan Virtual students, has become a welcoming space largely because of librarian Debby Lopez. Students helping decorate or deliver Chromebooks often do so not because they’re asked, but because the environment encourages them to want to help.
However, as academic responsibilities increase, Chapman says school can begin to feel disconnected from the rest of her life, especially when work seems to just fill time rather than enrich it.
“When work gets piled up on top of things, my mind starts to slip away from school,” Chapman said.
But she notes that she feels school is worth showing up for when she’s learning new skills, and she thinks that happens most when teachers take pride in their lessons.
“But it’s also worth showing up when I know I’m going to be learning something new, especially when a teacher is passionate about what they teach,” Chapman said.
For freshman Peyton Hernley, her identity is constructed through friendships and basketball. These are instances where school expectations fall into the background. And once again, create meaningful moments and connections. Hernley admits that she only really feels like herself at lunch.
“During lunch, because I can hang out with my friends and Remy,” Hernley said.
What Hernely cares about most is basketball. In a similar fashion to why she likes lunch so much.
“Because I can hang out with my friends, and it’s a lot of fun to play,” Hernley said.
These aspects of her day are where she feels the most like herself, out with his friends, participating in activities that make her passionate about life.
Jacobe Brosolme is a junior whose passions are positively airborne. Flying airplanes gives him an escape from the stress of school.
“I like flying airplanes because it distracts me from whatever I’m thinking about,” Broesamle said.
That disconnect from school allows him to reconnect with himself.
“It’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. I find passion in it,” said Broesamle.
When normalcy feels mundane, anything that brings you closer to yourself can add color to a grey sky.
As students move closer to being adults, their priorities turn toward relationships, passion, and their own personal fulfillment. Even though school continues to withhold the majority of their time, it no longer defines the entirety of who they are. Recognizing students as people who are more than just a grade or credit may be the first step in creating an environment where they feel seen rather than managed.
It is very rare that you find a person whose only label is “student.”
Besides the student council, cheer, NHS, and band. Wendy Cowan is a great example of how much a person can be outside of the confines of the label student. Brosolme echoed that sentiment.
“Getting to leave school is my favorite part of the day, because then I can just be myself completely and not have to worry about getting things done all the time,” Broesamle said.
So while the bell still rings at the end of every school day. For students, balancing grades, activities, jobs, and the uncertainty of what comes next, it no longer simply signals the end of class. It marks the start of another stretch of responsibilities, ambitions, and small steps toward the lives they’re building beyond high school. As students continue setting goals, leaning on their passions, and finding moments where they feel most like themselves, that daily rush home reflects something bigger than a packed schedule. It mirrors the opening moments of their final years of childhood. A time of pressure, reflection, and change, where the work doesn’t stop when the bell rings, and neither does the process of growing into who they’re becoming.
