As the end of the semester is drawing close, seniors start to get ready for their college life. Going through several years in Darlington, some seniors find their senior year to be very different from their previous years.

“In my senior year, I find a new life routine,” senior William Wang said. “In my freshman, sophomore and junior years, I spent almost all of my time on coursework, while in my senior year, there is less workload, so I spent more time trying something new, such as gaming, listening to some new music that I never tried before and doing some instrument recording.”

Wang also noted a change in his mindset.

“When I am in high school, I never think of what I am going to do in the future. I just keep on doing my coursework and doing what I like to do, [that is] playing music and [watching movies],” Wang said. “[Entering college], I start to think about what I wanted to do and start to explore different fields. I am really trying to find what I really want to do, which I think is important as the primary goal in my college [years].”

Senior Steve Han also saw a shift in priorities his senior year, specifically that “in my senior year, college applications became the most important.”

“Although there is less academic pressure, the college application work is still stressful. After college applications, my mindset changed to need to search for what I want to do and try my best to do everything,” Han said. “I spent a lot of time doing a lot of research, writing a lot of supplementary essays and doing a lot of activities and stuff like that.”

History teacher Alan Liow reflected on his senior year of high school.

“I took five AP [classes] in my senior year,” Liow said. “It is a chance to branch out. Taking those APs is not so much for my transcript. I want to learn the things I happened to be interested in.”

Senior year was not all work for Liow, though.

“I also skipped school on purpose for the first time,” Liow said. “You will find out starting from your senior year when you go to college as well … that the capability is on you. Senior year is going focus a lot more on the future. Every single year before that is just focusing on completing the next hurdle in your life.”