As the school year winds down, senior stress is amping up. It is now a race to the finish as these 12th grade students establish their plans for the future, finish graduation requirements, and prepare to leave high school.
Reaching senior year, for many, is a bittersweet feeling. It symbolizes an end to K-12 education and a move into young adulthood. English and AVID teacher Heather Arrambide discussed the difficulties of senior life, and the awareness that seniors have as they realize that these last few weeks will be their last memories of high school.

“Graduation, keeping grades up, A-Gs for college acceptances, graduation, and ‘senioritis’ when you are checked out mentally,” Arrambide said. ”You just have to push through those last few months, I think it is just a lot of stress.”

However, despite this pressure, senior year is not completely consumed by stress and struggle. For many, the final year of high school tends to be characterized by a strong community of friends and anticipation for a fresh start beyond high school.

Senior Ella Haas is sad about leaving the Buena community, but is happy with the memories she made and is eager for what the future will bring. She emphasized the 2021 Buena-Ventura football game as her favorite memory of senior year.

“I remember just taking a second on the field after we won to just sit there and to think, ‘This is happening, and we are a family. We started out as strangers as freshmen, and now we are all sitting here on this field celebrating each other,’” Haas said. “It was a very moving moment.”

As for the class of 2022, this graduating class has been rocked by a turbulent high school experience, marked forever by the COVID-19 pandemic hitting at the end of their sophomore year and continuing through their junior year.

However, this has not completely tainted the senior’s high school experience, and many look forward to the future. Senior Jazmyn Montanez Guzman is excited to graduate and explore new opportunities after spending half of her high school career online.

“It’s been a long 4 years and it felt even longer with COVID,” Guzman said. “I definitely realized that when they say something is going to happen on a certain day, that it doesn’t always happen. I learned how to be happy where I was.”

Despite the struggles that came with the pandemic and the stressors of senior year, the class of 2022 persevered, and they are now preparing to enter the adult world. After June 9 2022, they will be given a clean slate and a world full of opportunities.

“This is your new beginning,” Hass said. “How do you want to start it?”