The current seniors in high school have been alive for about 6,570 days, assuming they’ll all be turning 18 soon. Assuming we’ve been in school since kindergarten, and we’ll be finishing our twelfth year at the end of June, we’ve spent around 2,160 days in school. That means we’ve spent approximately a third of our lives – so far – in school. We just passed the 100 day mark, meaning we now have just about no more time left in our high school careers. There’s basically two minutes until Spring Break, then another until the dreaded APs, then it’s pretty much Memorial Day – we seniors have a solid six days off, by the way – after that, there’s maybe thirty seconds until the last day, finals week is a bit stagnant, but then we’re done. So, in total, maybe…ten minutes left? 100 days easily equates to ten minutes, totally.

In all actuality, “100 Days” refers to a celebration I’m probably not at liberty to talk about, as this is a school paper. So, we’ll just disregard that label and focus on the symbolic meaning of the small window of time. To many, it signifies the end of their high school career, a long awaited one, at that. After ending high school, many seniors are pursuing college next on their path of life. Ah, the dreaded “c” word. Until May 1st, it will still make most seniors shudder or twitch because most of us are still trying to figure things out. But, I digress. Bringing time back up, we truly can’t revel in the fact that we’re in the homestretch of high school. With the dread of APs and finals, college acceptances and senioritis hitting everyone hard, we can’t seem to reach the light at the end of the tunnel soon enough. Senioritis is real, contrary to popular belief. Suddenly the wave of being done with it all washes over you, and suddenly you’re embodied by a dogma you never thought would find a way to infect you. Nobody believes that they’re susceptible to the lack of drive until it hits. (I’m suffering, but I’ve yet to not hand anything in or not complete an assignment. I’m too chicken, quite frankly.) The thing about 100 days is, is that it’s a bit of a tease, since it’s until graduation. There’s a little over 40 school days left, which is pretty awesome, for lack of a better way of saying it. Amidst all of this defeating talk, clearly seniors are still excited to move on. After twelve years of the same schedule, most seem ready to break the cycle and gain the sense of independence they have been yearning for.

Sadly, though, just because everyone is ready to leave, doesn’t mean that everyone knows what they want to do with themselves. Some us know, but do we really know? (The answer is no, according to all of the teachers I’ve informally spoken to, in case you were curious or just as confused as I am.) Apparently, we’re not supposed to know, even though we’re expected to. With less than 100 days left of the education we’ve depended on to guide us through our messy teenage years, we’re suddenly expected to know exactly what we want to do with our lives. It’s just not fathomable, and it’s unfair, quite honestly. Most haven’t had that “ah-ha moment” when everything is right with the world and you just get it. And then even if you do, you still might go into school and change your major six or seven times. Everyone who has been through the college process says you totally can, and as reassuring as their words are, they also had to pay a fraction of what we’re expected to pay at the end of our undergraduate education, nevermind any further education. Everyone also says to do what you love, but to also do what will make you money, since, well, life is expensive. But sometimes the two don’t coincide, and maybe there are no jobs, which truly is frustrating. Still, as much as teenagers don’t like to admit it, adults are usually right, and our worrying seems silly when we look back at it. We’ll end up figuring it out in the end, but with less than 100 days left within the school that always seemed to figure itself out, it’s intimidating to have to go out and find answers ourselves.

Despite all that’s in our way, everyone is still ready to go. Really ready, actually. After asking a few seniors, “Are..you..reADY>!??WM?>Sm,” the response was overwhelmingly positive to the random capitalization and punctuation. The messiness reflects the chaos of senior year. When asked, nobody batted an eyelash at the jumbled lettering, instead opting to agree cheerfully. It’s probably safe to say that most members of the Class of 2017 are excited for these 100 Days to pass.

In all seriousness, all of our lives, we have been told by people older than us that high school would go by in the blink of an eye. As naive middle schoolers, most of us probably disagreed, intending to brace ourselves for the chaos that would ensue for the next four years. The high school once appeared like a shimmering, golden shrine when we were first enchanted with its presence at orientation before freshman year. It was as if this building held all the answers to our seemingly endless questions on just about everything. Wrong. If anything, it just created more questions for us, quite honestly. At the same time, what would high school be if we weren’t constantly learning life lessons and questioning every move we make? Obviously, seniors are desperate to finally complete this complicated phase of our lives, to move on to the bigger and better things we have planned. We’re all itching more and more each day to finally walk across the stage at graduation, for all our finals to be complete, for all the drama behind us, and most importantly, hold our memories close in our hearts. As eager as we may be to part ways with the school we’ve just about outgrown, there’s no denying that high school has shaped and touched all of us in some way. Of course, it’s important not to live in the past, as high school is such a trivial and miniscule portion of our lives. What’s important is to make the most of these dwindling days, rather than stressing out about the future or what went on in the past. Enjoy these final ten minutes, because they’ll be over before we all know it.

* photo via Google Images under the Creative Commons license