Senior year brings me mixed emotions. My favorite season is the fall. Beautiful colors of the leaves, weather nice enough to wear either t-shirts or hoodies, and that feeling of seeing friends again and slowly easing into school. And this season is a little sweeter because it’s senior season. The last dances and football games. The senior sunset. The last fall pep assembly. The last of everything.

Every last should be enjoyed to the fullest, and senior year has been just that to me: joyful. But there is always something to be stressed over.

The future stresses me out as much as the present makes me happy. College applications are my mountain this fall. The work I’ve put in these last four years from staying up until 4:00 a.m. doing IDs to running fundraisers and projects were in part so I could learn, but in part so I can attend the college I have always wanted to attend. Slowly but surely I am beginning the process as I am signing off my high school career.

For every last event, there is a new supplement I have to write. For every senior sunrise, there is a scholarship I should apply to. It’s difficult to enjoy senior year and yet constantly feel as if there is something productive I could be doing. There is always something I should be doing.

Maybe slow and steady is the answer. The tortoise did win after all. But it also took both the tortoise and the hare a very long time to get to the finish line…