This year, like every year, the senior class of 2019, will be graduating and embarking onto their next journey, whether that be college, the military, or the workforce. There are students that have been looking forward to this moment of being a senior and graduating since freshman year or earlier on. These are the people who are future-oriented and would enjoy starting a life for themselves. For many, seniority is something students look forward to gaining and enjoying a year of being at the top of the rank of every single grade. Graduating, for many, entails going to college and furthering their education. This also means starting out as a freshman again! For some, this is a scary thing, to start all over and to start out at the bottom knowing relatively no one. This can possibly be an extremely stressful thing. But, for others, it is an exciting and enticing thing they cannot wait to begin; to be able to start over with a new group of people in a brand-new place. It just depends on who you are and what your personality is. Pennridge School District has done their best to set everyone up to be successful in their futures.

Soon we will be done walking the halls of Pennridge High School and be able to decide for ourselves what we want to do. We will all be done waking up at the crack of dawn and rolling out of bed to be in a class by 7:15 am. Our schedules are blocked into a concrete routine that we cannot vary from. Also having to stay attentive from 7:15 am to 2:15 pm Monday through Friday, with a 30-minute lunch break can be draining. We are leaving behind the daily shenanigans of high school, relationships with friends, and experiences with teachers. Some students are going to miss this routine and experience dearly and want to just stick around a little bit longer. But, on the other hand, there are students who cannot wait to toss in the rag and continue onto college or other pathways and to experience a new standard of independence and freedom.

A lot of seniors are going off to college. The most popular colleges this year for the class of 2019 are Penn State, West Chester, Bloomsburg, and Temple. A lot of students expressed that they chose these schools because they are closer to home, they are public universities, and tuition is manageable. After talking to many students, it has been found that a large reason that students are attending these popular schools is because of sports scholarships. Nicolette Harrison said, “I am attending West Chester to play soccer because they gave me a scholarship.” But a couple of students like, Erik Dearborn, said, “I am attending Drexel University even though it is more expensive and a private university because it is going to set me up to have the greatest success and career for my major.” A few students are going as far as Utah and California to attend college. No matter where this class goes or what we do, we will always have the memories of Pennridge High School and our grade school experiences embedded in our memories.