Senior year has been one long, never ending rollercoaster, full of ups, downs and even many plateaus. I’ve always been the type of person who tells myself to take as many challenging classes as possible, thinking it will be ‘fun’ to have a rigorous course load, however I quickly learn that that mindset only sets me up for an extreme amount of stress. I originally began this year taking IB English and IB Film, along with taking on a lot of responsibility in both The Tower and The Album. Let’s just say that when second semester rolled around, I jumped on the half-day train and never looked back. Though I only ended up dropping IB Film and still maintaining a ton of responsibility, getting out at C-lunch made it much easier to be able to balance everything. On top of schoolwork, I balanced two jobs and had to work through some personal events as my mental health was another rollercoaster in itself. At the end of the day, I am very proud of the fact that I completed my senior year and maintained my good grades in all four years at John Adams High School.
After graduation, I will be attending the University of Missouri-Columbia to pursue a degree in social work and hopefully become a high school social worker. When making this decision on where to attend university, I went into the process blindsided. I never had a dream school growing up and all I knew was that I didn’t want to stay in the state, even though I’ve only been in Indiana for four years. Additionally, I went into the college research process wanting to be a second grade teacher and it wasn’t until just before college applications were due that I decided to switch my path. Though I know that I didn’t have to make a career choice before I graduated high school, it felt good to know that I was sure of one thing I’d be doing when I entered the world. To say that the acceptance and waitlist time period was full of dread and worrying would be putting it lightly. All I’ll say on that front is PLEASE VISIT THE SCHOOLS you apply to if you have the resources to do so because your dream school can quickly become the worst school on your list when you step foot on the campus.
As I write this final article, I want to thank two particular people for helping me find my way throughout high school. Firstly, I would like to Ms. Taylor for being someone I could always trust to go to for anything and everything. I’ve had Ms. Taylor as my teacher since sophomore year and I never expected to be sitting here now, having her for three consecutive periods and telling her any minor inconvenience that occurs. Secondly, I want to thank Ms. Minear for being another person I can always count on and trust to either humble me when needed or give me very valuable advice. Additionally, she has been my inspiration to go into the field of social work and help other teenagers the way she helped me and countless other students. These two individuals have been my rock for the past two years (at least) so I just wanted to take some time in this article to express my appreciation for them.
Thank you John Adams High School for the past four years! Through the ups and downs, the good and bad, there has always been someone or something keeping me going in this building. It has been a pleasure being one of your editors on The Tower and I will truly miss everyone I had the opportunity to know in this class! This is Jayne, signing out!!
