RISD REPORT
The last year of high school can be a year filled with excitement, nervousness and reflection. This week RHS Principal Tiffany Whitsel has some important points for students during their senior year.
Here are some tips as you progress through senior year:
Embrace the rekindling of old friendships, but remember your real friends. Senior year starts, and suddenly part of your old group from elementary school is trying to be friends with you again.
Sure, you’re wary at first and unsure of their intentions. But, they’re simply aching for acceptance and missing their friends that graduated in the years prior to this one, just like you.
Don’t ignore our underclassmen friends just because Miss Popularity that ditched you in middle school decides she wants to hang again.
Find a way to balance your new friendships with your “old” friends, but don’t leave your real besties behind.
Spend time with your teachers. It’s important to remember that the bonds you make with your teachers now are ones that could last a lifetime. By spending a little extra time getting to know them while also getting homework help or a quick study session in, you’re creating an opportunity for them to become your mentors for life.
Friendships with teachers or other adults that you can look up may often last longer than the friendships you form with your high school friends.
Be nice to your family. This was one of the biggest things I struggled with during my senior year. My relationship with my parents was difficult as we began coping with the fact that I was experiencing things for the last time.
You’re graduating, not leaving forever, and you’ll continue having new experiences for the rest of your life. Talk about problems that you’re facing with your family, and spend a little extra time with grandma and grandpa or your aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins.
You might be going to school nearby or six hours away next year, but either way, you’ll appreciate the bonds you’ve formed and begin to recognize the support system you’ll always have waiting for you.
Have fun and try something new. Take pictures, de-stress, binge a little Netflix, and celebrate your lasts instead of dreading them or being sad about it.
Your senior nights should not be spent crying. Leave that to your friends that won’t get to see you play or perform next year. You should be having fun, being proud of your accomplishments in the last four years, and thinking about leaving it all out on the court or field. If you haven’t been involved with many things throughout high school, then senior year is your last chance. Join that club you’ve been eyeing for years or convince your friends to do some community service! This is your last chance to experience many traditional high school rites of passage, so don’t skip out on sporting events, activities, or prom.
Take the pictures and smile. Be patient when mom, grandma, and every person you know begs for one more picture.
I remind you of this as you head into prom, and graduation. Take a few extra minutes and pose with family and friends. Most of you Snapchat throughout the day so you have practiced poses and can handle the family’s picture request. We may not be on Snapchat but we still like to brag about you the old fashioned way on Facebook.
As I get older I have truly cherished the pictures of family and friends that are no longer with us and feel bad at all the time I rolled my eyes and made fun of my mom as I ran off to my friends during pictures.
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