Richmond Hill High Schools seniors dealing with 'senioritis'
With the last full week of school just slipping away ‘May fever,' ‘senioritis,' or whatever you want to call it have reached new, unprecedented heights. It is an exciting time. Juniors are becoming seniors at last, freshman are securing a higher place in the high school food chain, and the seniors are finally about to enter the real world. However this is no easy undertaking, and while most seniors are ecstatic, there is also a unique nervousness, or anxiety, which can be seen hanging over RHHS; not unlike baby birds about to be ejected from the nest, and forced to learn to fly. I spoke with several Richmond Hill seniors to poll their general mood about leaving high school, some of their favorite high school moments, and their post-high school plans.
Ethan Vernon
Q: What will you miss the most about high school?
A: I’ll definitely miss my parents doing a lot for me like laundry and cooking meals and just scheduling my life for me. That’s going to be different in college. I’m kind of looking forward to it, but I’m going to miss it.
Q: Do you feel prepared?
A: I do. I feel like it’s my time to leave now, and I’m ready to go.
Q: What teachers have had the biggest effect on you?
A: I’m going to say Mr. Carpenter, solely because of his style. I learned a lot in that class, and a lot of it was how to dress.
Q: What would you say was your most memorable high school experience?
A: Probably missing my PK [penalty kick] in the first round of State against Hardaway. Yeah, it’s a bad memory but it’s one that’s going to stay with me. It’s etched in my mind forever.
Q: Do you have any plans for after high school, but before college?
A: I have an internship at Lead Dog Marketing. I’ll be working with marketing people and that’s what I want to do when I grow up so I’m pretty excited about that, and I’m going to Mexico, which will be fun.
Q: Where do you plan on going to college?
A: Right now I’m planning on going to GCSU [Georgia College and State University], but I’m on the waiting list for UGA so if I get in there I’ll go there, but as for right now it’s GCSU.
Q: Any ideas about a major?
A: Business, something in the marketing/business field. But, like last week I went to the dentist and it seemed like a pretty chill job. He just looked at my teeth, and looked at my x-rays, and told me to go. I could definitely do that from eight to five or whatever. It seemed pretty chill.
Q: Would you say you’ve been feeling senioritis?
A: Yes, yes I would. I think the teachers have too though, because they really haven’t been giving a lot of assignments for the end of the school year.
Kevin Smith
Q: What will you miss the most about high school?
A: I’d definite have to say, just the school environment, hanging out with the friends and the five minutes before every class. The social life.
Q: What teachers have had the biggest effect on you?
A: That would definitely be Blakewood and Paruso, not just because they’re slack teachers or their ‘unorthodox’ teaching styles. They just really know kids, and I guess those are the only teachers I ever learned from.
Q: What would you say was your most memorable high school experience?
A: I’d probably have to say the most memorable moment of high school was spring break this year. I went to Panama City, and I enjoyed it.
Q: Do you have any plans for after high school, but before college?
A: This summer I’ve got a little surfing tour planned, so I’m looking forward to that. And so that’s really the only thing I have planned before college.
Q: Where do you plan on going to college?
A: I plan on going to Armstrong my first year, and after that I’m just playing it by ear.
Q: Do you feel like you’re ready for college?
A: You know I feel like I’m ready for college, but at the same time I feel like I’m not ready to leave high school.
Q: Any ideas about a major?
A: Right now I stand undeclared, or undecided, but I’m thinking about maybe being a history teacher or something like that. Not just because it’s an easy subject, but because it’s one of my favorite subjects, and it’s something I’d like to teach.
Q: Would you say you’ve been feeling senioritis?
A: I definitely would say that. I’ve been skipping school so much, like lunch every day. I mean I do my work, sometimes study, but I’d definitely have to say yeah.
Brett Strickland
Q: What will you miss the most about high school?
A: I would say that I’m going to miss the gathering of friends. You just don’t have that whenever you leave high school. You just don’t have those types of people come together, it’s a diverse crowd, it’s different, and it’s real fun. I’m going to miss it.
Q: What teachers have had the biggest effect on you?
A: Ms. Dixon, she really made me buckle down and read. That’s like the only teacher that’s actually been able to make me do that. And she gave me such inspiration in things like certain Shakespeare, and stuff that I wouldn’t have even thought of.
Q: What would you say was your most memorable high school experience?
A: Probably all the football games. It’s just not one memory, it’s getting together at the football games and saying hello to friends and hanging out there, cheering for our team no matter what the scoreboard said. We just roared our hearts out.
Q: Do you have any plans for after high school, but before college?
A: I plan on going into the military for a little but, probably the Air National Guard, working in avionics and as an electrician, and after four years of that I’ll probably going into some local college.
Q: Where do you plan on going to college?
A: If I had to choose it would probably be between Georgia Southern and Armstrong.
Q: Any ideas about a major?
A: I’ll probably go into engineering since it’s the same thing my brother went into, and we’ll probably start up a firm or something like that. Some kind of small business together.
Q: Would you say you’ve been feeling senioritis?
A: Oh yes, I have definitely been feeling senioritis. I’ve skipped quite a few classes I have to admit, and definitely a couple of lunches. And I’m constantly late, constantly, to every class.