Senior year is anticipated by nearly everyone. If not due to senioritis and excitement for college then for landmarks to the high school experience, excitement, finality, growing up, but also missed opportunities that can be attributed largely to the half day.

Students complain that they wish they were more involved in highschool, or that they were smarter. This argument is totally invalidated for students who take half days, because they had an opportunity to be more involved, or take a few more education classes while they were free. After the fantasy of high school is over, classes are not free anymore, and the reality of life and competition is much more real.

A survey conducted by Achieve interviewed high school grads and concluded that about 50 percent feel “unprepared for college and career” due to not taking more difficult classes for “lack of time and effort.” By taking a half day, you are throwing away time that you could be investing in preparation for the future.

Although statistics about the preparedness of students across the nation seem positive in that they show improvement, these are students you are competing for in the real world. These are the students whose Grade Point Average you must match to make it into law school, whose resumes sit right beside yours.

Investing in your future today won’t hurt you as much as you think it would. After all, how often do you hear adults at their class reunions that wish they would have gone home to take a nap after school instead of taking that extra fine arts or language class.

There will be ample to work, play, sleep, and recuperate later.

As cheesy as it is, the Allstate Commercials are wrong. You’re future is actually in your own hands, and what you do today actually works to determine what you will become. After all,  most students you are completing with across the country are required to take more credits than we are, because we are limited to 6 periods instead of the 8 you see more frequently on the east coast.

So don’t be afraid to be that senior who walks off campus at the same time as the underclassmen, the senior who cares enough about their future to invest in it today.