As a student finally approaches his senior year in high school, they have spent almost all of their recollected life in school and at home, under the supervision of loving parents and teachers; but now that is about to change. With some nervousness and much excitement, they are preparing for a great leap into adulthood where they will have more freedom than ever before. For both parent and student, this is a stressful time of wrapping up one chapter of life and preparing for another.
At this point in the process, most seniors have at least narrowed it down as to where they are going to go to college. They have taken the tests and have done just about all that they can do academically to graduate. Many of them have actually “clocked-out” of high school (mentally, emotionally, and maybe even physically) already and are just going through the motions to make it to graduation. Parents are finding it harder to communicate to their senior and focus them on anything constructive as the student and the parent, even more than usual, find themselves on two separate wavelengths. While the parent wants to draw them in, the senior feels the need to pull apart. There are always exceptions to this, but for many the tensions at home are rising.
The typical mindset of a high school senior is an anomaly. They are physically here, living the regular day-to-day life of school, family, and church, but they are mentally there, daydreaming about life as a college student. Sometime in the first grade, a teacher probably told them what graduating class they were in. This seemed like a lifetime away, to you and to them, and yet that year is now approaching. A student begins to look forward to her senior year around middle school and, each year, longs more and more for the moment of becoming the big man on campus. Then, once that moment finally comes, something strange happens. The longing is over, the time has arrived and the typical high school senior overlooks this year of seniority to gaze upon the beautiful pastures of college life. This is a condition commonly known as Senioritis. More on that next week on the blog and The Launch Mission Podcast.