Wilton High School seniors can now experience a whole new freedom during the hour period. Every day, in the middle of the day, one class meets for an hour and a half with a 30-minute lunch in the middle. Seniors who have free, however, can now leave the school and go wherever they please. Most choose to go to their favorite fast-food place, of which there are quite a few options. Panera, Qdoba, Chipotle, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Five Guys, Taco Bell, KFC, Chick Fil-A, Subway, and numerous delis, pizza places, and Chinese food places all gain business from Wilton High School’s eldest class. It’s impressive and quite surprising just how many different fast food places there are within 20 minutes of the high school. If nothing else, it certainly offers an abundance of choices.
However, this so-called “senior privilege” offers another distinct advantage to high school seniors. Obviously it’s nice to get out of the school, even for just an hour, to enjoy food with your friends but senior privilege brings so much more to students. Senior privilege offers a small taste of the immense amounts of freedom high school seniors will soon be entrusted with. As we now enter our final semester of high school, we start to say good-bye to some of the little things we have done for our entire educational careers. Kids stop riding the bus. The little four-foot angels that climbed up the steps of the intimidating school bus on the way to their first day of kindergarten not too long ago now march out the front door and drive themselves to school. Kids stop activities they’ve done for years or start completely new ones. Kids start coming home with ideas about the world, and start developing their own set of morals. Slowly but surely, for better or for worse, kids gain minute amounts of freedom.
I’m sure the transition to college life will be extreme. There are countless differences between college and high school life that every senior will have to adjust to this September. But the biggest thing that college brings is freedom. Never before have kids had the kind of freedom they will experience in college. However, with this newfound freedom will also come new responsibilities. Managing grades, paperwork, bedtimes, and even laundry completely on my own is something I am not looking forward to at all. My entire life I’ve had someone (thanks, Mom) who has made sure I have everything logistically figured out in my life. And so, as the days wind down and the seniors start to say good-bye, each must remember to be grateful for some of the simple things in high school they may never have again. Because even if high school seniors might not have as much freedom as they would like, they also have people to help them all the time with whatever they need. And that means a lot more than it gets credit for.
Jackson Ward is a senior at Wilton High School. He shares this column with four classmates.