Guest blogger ’21

A surprise landed in my inbox yesterday.  It’s from a member of the incoming Class of 2021, a reflection piece about high school “senioritis.”  For any readers who might not have heard of that term, “senioritis” is a pretend illness that afflicts seniors who are ready to be finished with school (whether that is high school or college seniors).  Senioritis is akin to the other mythical malady, Spring Fever, which all our students seem to feel in April (the weather is gorgeous, I don’t want to be in class, I want to be outside!)

My hunch is that many of you can relate to this – either because you have younger children at home going through the college admissions process, or because you just went through this with your ’20 Deac,  or maybe because you have a junior or senior at Wake and can think back to what your student was like before he/she entered Wake.

In any event, I thought this was delightful and refreshing (and not just because ’21 said some nice words about this blog, I promise you).  For me sometimes, it is easy to forget the millions of changes our incoming first-years are going through, and this is a nice reminder of all they might have on their minds.

It may even be a fun exercise for those P’21s out there to have your student write down his/her hopes for college – and you could do the same – and then talk about those – where are they similar? where do they differ?

So I present to you our Guest Blogger ’21’s piece, Senioritis Summed Up.

Senioritis hit me early. A little too early. Motivation is gone and my mind is constantly filled with thoughts of college. Like, CONSTANTLY. I downloaded a countdown app on my phone months ago and created various countdowns like “days until graduation” and “days until move in day.” I check the app daily although I already know the numbers.

You truly don’t know what senioritis feels like until you get into the college you plan to attend. Once the next four years are paved in front of you and you can clearly see your future, you’ll know what has hit you. It’s a feeling of pure laziness mixed with anticipation. Dear high school, I am sincerely done with you and do not care to fulfill your expectations any longer. Dear college, can you please come faster?

I very recently discovered “The Daily Deac,” an informative blog directed towards parents about events and such at Wake Forest. Betsy Chapman, whom I had lunch with prior to my Wake interview, is the author of the blog. Literally, how cool! So of course, I have (not surprisingly) spent the last two hours of my productive Monday night reading endless articles on the blog. Also (surprisingly), I’m not sure how I JUST discovered this blog since I have spent countless hours perusing the Internet for anything and everything relating to Wake Forest. Can you tell I’m a second semester senior?

Back to the topic of senioritis… It has hit me, for sure, but there is one aspect of the epidemic that the majority of people don’t know about. Yes, the word “lazy” is 100% associated to the feeling, but the antonym, “driven,” is also connected. WHAT?! When I think of my upcoming freshmen year at Wake Forest, I think of success. I am so fortunate to attend my dream school, and all I want to do at this remarkable place is succeed. Of course, success comes with failure, and I expect to face some challenges, but I am driven to plow through these challenges in order to make it to the finish line. I am going to work my butt off because I want to. At a beautiful place like Wake Forest, I will automatically be motivated to achieve what I desire.

Not only am I driven to succeed academically, but also socially. For the past 14 years I have been surrounded by the same people in a small school. That gets old real quick, as you can imagine. I am not the most outgoing person, but I am terribly eager to simply meet new people. I am overwhelmed, in a good way, to have 1,200 new classmates, none of which (exception of maybe 4) are from my secluded high school community. I just want to meet new people and experience some diversity, to be honest. It sounds so refreshing to have conversations with strangers who will soon become companions.

Yes, it is currently 1 AM and I told my tired, groggy self early this morning that I would go to bed at a decent hour tonight, but I find that putting these thoughts on paper is imperative. I have no shame in spontaneously writing this in the wee hours of the night because I know I will read this in two years and appreciate it. I also know that in 2 years I will be wishing I had 4 years of college ahead of me.

College is going to fly by and I will try my hardest not to take one second of my time at Wake for granted. I have come to recognize that in the moment, you don’t realize how cool certain experiences are until you look back on them and reminisce. I hope to live in the present at Wake Forest and appreciate all the formative opportunities I am given and the diverse people I will meet. Sounds cliché, but the best four years of my life are ahead of me and I am determined to take advantage of them.