Being a senior is harder than I thought. After the struggling and painful junior year, I looked forward to stepping into my senior year. I imagined receiving light work, good grades, and easy homework; however, senior year is nothing like what I expected. I started preparing my college essays back in the summer, but I still had to spend most of my free time working on them when school started. Aside from the college work, AP classes also stress me out.

“I thought I would be done after turning in my common application, but I still have to worry about my grades because of regular decisions,” Sarah said.

Sarah Niu is also a senior, and she is majoring in computer science. Growing up, Sarah is always the student who gets straight A, takes AP and IB classes, and the one that parents always compliment. But even doing extraordinary in school, Sarah also feels overwhelmed by senior year.

“I’m not good at writing essays, so college essays are a big challenge for me. Also, filling out all the common apps and UCs is so time-consuming. College stuff gives me nightmares and haunts me every second.” Said Sarah.

While taking almost 7 AP classes, Sarah has to take care of her college application no less than I did. Sarah claims that she hardly sleeps before 1 AM in the morning resulting from the workload. Unfortunately, the average sleeping time for seniors is extremely short. With this little sleep, seniors participate in the most activities and finish the most work.

Despite the difficulties, I believe all the seniors are working on creating a better future and looking forward to their new chapter of life. This process not only challenged us with hardship but also promoted our ability of stress-taking and problem-solving. We all deserve a bright future, class of 2023, shine high and bright!