Everyone said junior year was the hardest. Boy, were they wrong.

So far, senior year is even more challenging than the infamous eleventh grade. In comparison to last year, my work is more rigorous, my teachers are more reluctant to hand out ‘A’ papers and my schedule is more jam packed than ever.

As a junior, I planned to spend my last weeks of the summer writing college essays, completing the Common App and drafting supplemental essays for the schools I’m applying to. Then came the actual end of the summer. I barely finished my summer reading, let alone began my college apps.

But I still thought that senior year would breeze by. College acceptance letters: check. Midyear grade reports: decent. Similar to most of my classmates, I thought the dreamed-of senioritis feeling would just happen.

Wrong. Because this is Whitman, and the work never ends. Teachers will continue assigning homework and the intensity of classes will only increase as the year progresses.

I thought senior year would give me a break. But no. No break from homework, college apps or school supplements. Everything still has a due date, but I’m not just dealing with MCPS anymore. The due date is the deadline, and the risks actually mean something, like not getting into college.

As much as I’d enjoy spending time on the clubs, sports and other extracurricular activities I haven’t tried at Whitman, it simply cannot be done.

Between my regular schoolwork, existing extracurricular activities and college prep, senior year has overwhelmed me. While I want to enjoy my last year in high school, as I’m sure everyone does, senior year is pressuring me to a degree I thought impossible.

This senior year mania may feel like it never ends, but surely the light at the end of the tunnel won’t turn out to be an oncoming train. I can only hope that the time I spend on this work will prove its worth this time next year, when we seniors can experience the wonder that accompanies freshman year in a college.

In the future, as we graduate from college and begin to complain about our never-ending pile of bills, we’ll reflect back and appreciate the work we accomplished at Whitman.  I hope.