Graduation is an important milestone that marks the success of the end of a journey. High school graduation expresses the end of childhood and the welcoming into adulthood. With senior trips, parties, traveling, and students feeling excited for their futures, why is there an overwhelming feeling of stress during this era? When we’re supposed to be at our happiest, waiting for the future to come, why do we feel a sudden doom?
Graduation can be extremely stressful for multiple reasons, one of which is the fact that we are under stress from all angles. With final exams, college decisions, jobs, and still trying to maintain friendships before leaving, all this can pile into one big stress ball in our brains.
By the time graduation comes, we might feel too exhausted to fully enjoy the end of our high school years. Seeing perfect, almost movie-like photos and experiences of how other seniors are living on social media can also add to this stress ball. Social media portrays only the glamorous moments of these endings. Completely ignoring the real behind the scenes, and causing unnecessary amounts of stress.
I dived deeper into the social media presence of graduation and how it has made seniors feel. Senior AK Miller expressed that “seeing people have really cute and perfect moments during a stressful time on Instagram or TikTok kind of creates a feeling of being annoyed or makes me feel down about how I’m posting.”
Seeing the acceptance videos, graduation parties, and unbreakable friendships posted on social media can create an uneasy feeling. Watching everyone’s perfect moments can cause constant comparisons and even competition, focusing on only making graduation look memorable online — rather than letting seniors enjoy it in real life.
Graduation represents both the sadness of change and the importance of growing up and starting something new. I interviewed a couple of seniors to get their inside opinion on how graduation has felt to them. Senior Talia Sun stated, “Graduation has been something I’ve always looked forward to. But actually experiencing it now, trying to balance lacrosse and finals with graduation and all the planning, has added more stress to my life.” Learning to balance these important aspects of life can be challenging and overwhelming.
Finishing high school itself is an achievement, and it shouldn’t be viewed as stressful or a judgment of success, but rather as a way to show the growth we’ve achieved. It can be helpful to focus on the smaller moments of these last few weeks we have with each other, instead of chasing a perfect senior year.
I discussed with senior Parker Simpao what his happiest last moments were that made graduation all worth it. He replied, saying, “Spending time with my friends and family before I leave really means a lot. Just going out and experiencing new stuff, too, has been really fun.”
In the end, graduation can feel stressful at times, and the sensation of life changing all at once can feel overwhelming. We, seniors, are on the verge of experiencing new opportunities and meeting new people. It’s important to see and visualize graduation as a moment of new beginnings and growth within our lives.
