Expectations VS Outcome

June 15th:

Senior year. The best year. The year to make memories you'll never forget. To go crazy and live life to the fullest with no regrets.

These are the things I heard about how senior year should be. The way you had to "do" senior year, or else you were missing out on everything.

Well, I've decided that those expectations are stupid. Why does your senior year HAVE to be the best? Why wait until your last year to have fun? To make memories? You end up (potentially) wasting your three other years of high school waiting for the best year: senior year. You want it to be fun, memorable, awesome, the best ever. But what happens when it's not? Are you a failure? Did you do something wrong? Were you TRYING to not have fun, perhaps subconsciously? Was it all a waste if you look back and decide that senior year was NOT your favorite? God forbid - it was your LEAST favorite?!

That's actually my opinion on my senior year. It definitely wasn't my favorite year (whoot shoot, junior year!), and unfortunately it ended up being my least favorite out of all four. No, it wasn't horrible, and I didn't HATE it or anything, but it was definitely my least favorite.

You wanna know why it was my least favorite? Unfulfilled expectations. I think everything in my life told me that my senior year would be the best and that I would have the most fun and school would be so easy, bla bla bla, but it ended up being probably my toughest year filled with the least amount of fun.

While it WAS disappointing to realize that I didn't love senior year, I feel like it was the most rewarding - both in my relationships and in my maturity as an individual AND daughter of God. I learned so much about... well, everything! Even though I didn't have fun doing it, I don't think senior year was a waste at all. I'll admit, sometimes it's hard hearing people brag about how amazing their senior year was, but in some deeper part of me I have to wonder if they really got as much out of it as I did. Will they remember all those nights they went TPing or partied hard? OR will they wish they had discovered more about themselves and their friendships? I can't answer that, obviously, because I am not them, but I do wonder what we will all look back and think of when we consider our last year of high school.

I'm thankful that God threw so much at me to deal with this past year because I was in the perfect environment to deal with it all. I pity those who will have to discover who they are in their first or second years in college where they have little community and are far from all those who love them unconditionally....

So, I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say, but I encourage you if you are still a pre-senior to keep your mind open and to not feel like a failure if your senior year isn't the BESTEST EVER. Also, if you are an adult: quit telling minors how their lives should go. They have enough of their own expectations to deal with, without you piling yours on top.

Yeah... Keep it classy readers.