As students feel the long days of winter getting to them and making them feel exhausted, one group of students stands alone in their hopefulness: seniors. This is because Paint Branch’s seniors have entered their final semester of high school and the shining light of graduation sits just a few short months away. Each year, public school students in the U.S. attend 180 days of classes, but this number drops to just 157 days for seniors who are granted an early release from the grind of high school before graduation.
PB senior Ebenezer Solomon finds himself a little more reflective on things as he draws closer to graduation, something that’s approaching quicker than he anticipated. Ebenezer, who served as one of the captains on the boys’ varsity soccer team, says, “I wasn’t anticipating this year to move so quickly; and all this time I’ve felt like I’ve just been going through the motions trying to finish it out.” Ebenezer shares that some of his favorite memories during high school have been time with friends. “I enjoyed all the time I spent hanging out with my guys,” he notes. To be honest, that’s probably what I liked doing the most at school.”
Another PB senior Alex Crotzer feels a little nervous about the end of his high school years, but he is excited about moving up to college at MC. “I’m a little bit nervous about finally leaving high school but, honestly I’m going to Montgomery College soon so I’m looking forward to that.” Alex’s favorite memories throughout his high school years were being a part of the bocce team that got second place in counties and being a captain on the tennis team. “I had fun during my bocce season with getting second place in counties and I feel accomplished about that,” he says. “I also enjoy being captain for the tennis team and I’m excited to play tennis again in the spring.”
Olivia Rayford has mixed feelings about this being her last semester at PB. She is sad that the experience is ending but is excited about the independence that comes with leaving high school and going into the real world. “I’m sad, but I’m not,” she says, “high school is sort of cool coming into it, but I’m ready to go. I’m ready for independence and stuff but at the same time I’m not, which is sort of weird.” Olivia’s favorite moments were when she first came back from Covid and saw all the school spirit that the class of 2022 seniors had for sporting events. “I would definitely say coming back in after Covid [was great],” she notes. Like, obviously, the seniors– they had a lot of school spirit. They took things a little too far in a funny way. One time I saw a guy wearing a coconut bra and a skirt at a football game and I thought that was funny.”
Olivia also says that she is going to miss not having the responsibilities adults have. “I’m going to miss not having to worry about the things that I will have to worry about as I become an adult, like having a full-time job and having to pay my own bills, having to constantly pay for my own gas and my car. Having those sorts of carefree thoughts, I’ll be more appreciative of what I have now later on in life.”
Gregory Tsobgny A senior at Paint Branch high school feels relieved about the school year coming to an end. He says that he is proud of some of the accomplishments that he’s had at PB and is ready to go off to college. “I am happy that it is almost time to move on from high school,” he notes. “I feel good about all of the things that I did during my years of high school, like getting honor roll for all years.” When asked what parts of high school he enjoyed the most, Gregory says he really enjoyed spending time with his classmates, friends, and playing sports. “Some of the favorite memories I made were playing soccer in gym with all my friends and people in my class.”