Seniors: Don’t Ever Let Up

Seniors – by the time you are reading this blog, you are likely getting to the time of the school year when you are or will be getting tired of school – sometimes even classes and activities you typically love. This can happen in a normal year! But this year has been anything but normal for you, so it may be even more likely that you are at least sometimes feeling like you are “done with school” and all of the pressure and anxiety that sometimes comes with it. 

I’m here to tell you - Don’t. Ever. Let. Up. Finish strong! Make yourself keep going! 

Do your very best through the very end of the year – in your classes, in your activities, in your college planning (including completing and submitting scholarship applications and comparing financial aid awards), at home, with your friends and in your relationships with teachers, coaches, and staff. It can be so tempting to let up. 

It is so very tempting to just say “heck with it” when you are just so tired everything – and no one would blame you for feeling that way, especially this year. But, in my years and years of experience, I have never ever heard anyone say they wished they hadn’t tried so hard. I’ve never heard anyone say they wished they hadn’t done their best in something. I’ve never heard anyone say they wished they hadn’t finished that activity or sport or club, giving everything they had! The things we regret are typically the times we gave up or didn’t try hard enough. It is not always easy. But many times the habits you create in high school – even here at the very end of your high school career – carry over into the next phase of your life: college, on the job training, work/career. 

Living through the last year+ during a very uncertain pandemic time, even though it probably changed so many of your plans and dreams and although it has been nothing you would have ever wanted or asked for, has probably taught you some helpful and useful life lessons. Hopefully you will carry some of these life lessons with you into your post-high school life. I commend you for surviving and even thriving during these crazy times, and I urge you to finish what you started – way back in your Pre-K days – with your best effort and the most positive energy you can muster! Make it a GREAT spring!

  Mary Joan - East Central Iowa Student Success Advisor