You’ve got it all figured out. You know about the pool on the G building, you know how to work the uniform, you know how to pick the perfect SMCHS cookie. On the outside, you’re the senior that knows it all.

But on the inside, you are crumbling apart because senior year isn’t the joke you expected it to be. Rather, it has many seniors anxious rather than laughing. The belief that “senior year is easy” is a rumor that leads SMCHS students to enter their last year of high school with low expectations. Come reality, students stress out because they are not mentally prepared for what senior year really entails.

As a senior, your feelings of fear, anxiety and stress are not yours alone. The need to balance high school and the anticipation of college decisions puts a lot of mixed emotions on your plates.

“I want to fast forward, skip through and just know where I am going,” said senior Katie Roschak. “The fact that you work so hard and might not get into any single college is scary.”

For at least 12 years, seniors’ academic lives have led up to this moment: getting into college. And it is all in the hands of paperwork: essays, transcripts, SAT or ACT scores and letters of rec. The fact that it all seems as risky as playing the lottery augments senior year worries.

“I am willing to put in the work to write and edit my essay for it to be the best it can be, but I don’t want to invest all this time to something that might not help me get into the school I want,” said senior James Griffin.

According to Sam Skarvan, who graduated from the class of 2014 and currently attends the University of Alabama, the paper work and school work aren’t what make senior year difficult. The real challenge is finding ways to overcome the psychological insecurities and barriers you create within yourself since you constantly hear how exclusive colleges are at admitting students so you second guess your  abilities.

“I would start crying in class because I would freak out wondering if all the effort I put into getting good grades, and the time and money for raising my ACT score would be worth it in the end,” Skarvan said. “When I didn’t get into Berkley, I got depressed so my mom made me see a psychologist.”

Each senior has a different method to deal with college app stress. Some skip school, others just put off their school work. As expected, college apps tend to become an excuse. Grace Shu, graduated from the class of 2014 currently attends Yale, warns seniors to snap out of their senioritis phase in order to increase their productivity.

“College applications may seem difficult at first, but it is definitely doable,” Shu said. “Knowing that my friends were going through the same thing was helpful, and we definitely helped each other get through the madness that is applying for college.”

Regardless of the struggles, seniors should look at the bright side. Seniors get all the perks: college sweatshirts, free dress last Friday of the month, and events like Kairos.

Your perspectives can make all the difference in your accomplishments. Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage and presenter of the TEDxBloomington talk advocates that a positive attitude leads people to reach their goals and overcome their challenges. According to Achor, optimism is a state of mind that makes the challenging situations only temporary and thus able to be overcome.

“If you can raise level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we call a happiness advantage,” Achor said. “If we can find a way to be more positive in the present then our brains work even more successfully as they are able to work harder, faster, and more intelligibly. Dopamine floods into your system when your positive and has two functions, not only does it make you happier, it turns on all the learning centers in your brain.”

So being happy can make you smarter, more successful and in control of the events in your life.

“I also tried to take an optimistic view on every situation which allowed me to keep such a positive attitude throughout high school,” Shu said. “I just kept my goals in mind and always pushed to strive towards them no matter what life threw my way.”

Seniors, smiles out: senior year can be wonderful. Optimism might help in de-stressing. After all it’s your last year, so go out with a bang. Sure, you might have started the year banged up with the stress from everything senior year has already offered, but pay it back. Take courage and with your attitude conquer senior year challenges.