“Priorities, priorities.” A serious myth says that senior year is for slacking. Yes, senior year is much easier than the previous years, but that is no excuse for not doing work and skipping school.

Senior year is the final year to get everything together. Whether it is applying to colleges, getting good grades, or having a great final year of sports, senior year is certainly not for slacking. It may be too late to start from the beginning, but it certainly is not too late to improve.

It took me three long, hard years of high school to finally understand why staying focused has a huge benefit. It took three long years to understand that, yes, being social is a good trait, but balancing social life and school life is very important. Yes, skipping studying to go to the school basketball game may be fun, but what won’t be fun is failing the quiz the next day because you have no idea how to do it. Do not let your social life take over; those people you are “friends” with will not matter when you have graduated and are out of school. Good friends understand when it is time to get serious. In my fourth year of high school, I finally understand the importance of putting myself first towards my success. Senior year is all about time management; what you do with your time affects your future.

Put down those phones! Teenagers, including seniors, have a major issue when it comes to technology distracting them. Less work gets done in school and outside of school due to distractions with technology. I see countless tweets of “I should be doing my homework, but Twitter is distracting me.” It should not be like that; seniors especially need to become serious as they apply for colleges and also complete school assignments. This is the last year to get it all done; there is no time for slacking.

Senior year is about focus; one must focus on making sure he or she gets all his/her volunteer hours and credits, and passes his/her classes. Some people may think that getting the average D is good enough, but it won’t be good enough when your teacher tells you that you are barely passing and if you do not pass, you cannot graduate. Reach for the best of your abilities. Always think ahead; your long-term goals will have the most beneficial results. Even though you may think it does not matter now or you do not care for long-term goals, lack of these goals will be a major regret when you look back.

Graduation should be the goal of senior year. I cannot tell you how regretful you’ll be if you let slacking prevent your graduation. Think about your future; think about those three hard years in high school. Are you willing to throw that all away due to laziness? The answer, by far, should be no.

Don’t let school ruin your senior year. Senior year is supposed to be fun, but you just have to make sure you don’t let the fun stand in the way of your future. It’s okay to relax and enjoy. Just acknowledge what is important for your future over what is important now, and you will have the best senior year you can dream of.