The Senior Class

Last week in Common Ground we all received a nice letter from our Principal remarking at how wonderful the senior class is. While we all appreciated the letter and the sentiment, the rest of our Common Ground was open season for hating on the seniors. Even some of the seniors were getting in on it. The main argument, it seemed, was that the seniors this year aren't really seniors at all. We don't push people around, we aren't big and scary like seniors past, we're basically old juniors who are still in the school. 

Maybe it's the college woes or the new school that's got us down, but this years senior class is, quite frankly, lame. I have to admit it, we just aren't that strong of a class. Take us individually and we seem amazing. We have contortionists, scholars, nationally ranked athletes and even a few actors. But together, we're just a big group of people. If you ask a senior about that girl in our class who just got into Yale, the common answer is: "Who is that? Is she even in our grade?" No one takes the time to go out of their social holes and really figure each other out. Ever since 8th grade the only common theme I can see in my own class is that we're all in a rush to get out of Hanover, and in the process all we've done is alienate ourselves from one another. We have, arguably, the most cliquey grade in the school, yet we are supposed to be the most mature out of the entire student body. The only time people unite is when they rally to exclude other people, be it from their tables in the atrium or saving chairs in the auditorium or even not picking up their phones when certain people call. I've been there, I've seen all of this happen. Everyone is so exclusive and in their own worlds. The very same people who whine about wanting to go to college so badly do things that are, honestly, really "high school". John Hughes would have had a field day with the 08's at Hanover. When we aren't inebriated we just talk about getting inebriated or complain about some aspect of life in the Upper Valley. I say we because I have to include myself in this assessment, I am just as guilty as the rest. Sure, on the first day of school we all wore those red shirts. But if you stopped and looked at where everyone was sitting and who they were actually talking to, was it really different? What should have been a fun rallying point turned out to be a glorified uniform. 

I guess what I really want to say to the 08's is that we should spend our last year together really making something of it. Haze freshman, rather than each other. Let's actually get some ideas going for a sweet senior prank or something. Too long we've been defined as the grade that's too big. We need to make a name for ourselves. The 07's were the jocks, the 06's were alternative, the 05's legends. What are we? No one wants to be known as that grade that couldn't stand each other. So next time someone you don't know is looking for a seat in the auditorium or the next time you see someone sitting alone in the atrium, give them a chair. They're in your class, they're going through the same thing you are, why not get to know them, after all, we only have one more year.