A realistic day of a stressed out senior
Waking up on this dreadful winter morning, I’m met with a pounding headache and the sore sight of the previous night’s empty tropical red bull. Last night’s nightmares—full of rejection letters from my top schools and missing assignment notifications—kept me tossing and turning until morning. Just the thought of getting dressed for school sends shivers down my spine. And looking at the big pile of unwashed laundry, I know today’s outfit will not be a good one. Rolling out of bed, I prepare myself for another hectic day with not one ounce of stability left. Naturally, I wake up too late for any kind of sustaining nutrients and yet again, it’s a black coffee and Clif Bar kind-of morning. Driving to school, I glance at my phone, noticing the Gmail notification reminder of my meeting with Ms. Honda during third period. Having nothing else to make me feel any more paranoid than I already do, I let out a deep sigh that fogs up my window, making it look even frostier –a clear reflection of my mental state.
As my dad drives into Michigan gate, he stops to give me some last-minute words of encouragement, but is quickly cut off by a strongly-worded crossing guard telling him to pull forward.
Art by Florence Fraiser-Macduff
Now past the gate of misery, I relish in the last two minutes of blasting my music before surrendering my phone to the phone pocket. I begin to walk to my dreaded AM class and am immediately met with yet another lecture, alongside five pages of notes. Of course. I should’ve just taken that economics/government class over the summer to prevent these cold mornings. By the time I’m done with these notes, the rest of the senior class is barely waking up.
Staring at the clock and analyzing the peeling drywall, I am now fully checked out of whatever Mr. Thun is talking about. Retrieving from my procedural memory, I can’t recall the last time I actually completed something on my agenda. Tuesday - Harass my junior year teacher to finally submit my letter of rec
Tuesday - Harass my junior year teacher to finally submit my letter of rec
Wednesday - Skip class to work on college apps
Thursday - Review writing with English teacher
Friday - Cut all of it and rewrite supplementals from scratch
Approaching third period, I drag my feet to the College and Career center to get to my meeting. I know Ms. Honda is sick of seeing my name on calandly.com. “While this paragraph is okay... Let’s brainstorm some safety ideas,” Honda says. “You know, just in case.” Letting the feedback hit me, I sit in silence. Typing vigorously away on my computer, I check the word count every five minutes, making sure I max out the limit. Having Ms. Honda look over it once more, I take a five-minute break from my revisions and notice the big calendar outside. December is marked in bright red that nearly blinds me every time I see it. Just a week ago, submitting my UC applications seemed so far away. Who knew Nov. 30th could come up so quickly? I really hope that any rumors of Samo being a feeder school for the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) are true...
With weeks worth of mental preparation of manifesting, meditation and deep spiritual exploration, I reflect on my routine. In an attempt to establish as much luck as I can get during application season, I make wishes at 11:11, practice morning meditations and pray that all my payments to that Etsy witch will finally pay off. Imagining my destinies of either acceptance or rejection, I begin to review my application in my head. I start to psyche myself out into thinking I had a spelling error in my personal statement. Did I? Do you think they’ll notice I lied about my number of community service hours per week? Well, anyways, the only entertainment I have locked in for winter break is the @samohi2026collegebound Instagram account. With another stressful Tuesday gone, I am finally tucked into bed and ready to sleep through my alarm tomorrow.