The paradox of the high school senior

By Erik Green

So turning 18 means you're grown, right? Yes, of course. You can drive. You can vote. You can join the military. You can get married. It is even legal to do married type things before marriage. You can watch R-rated movies. The vast world of adulthood lies before you like an unexplored island paradise.
Unfortunately, your senior year of high school keeps you in the bosom of childhood a little longer, and it *&^%$# stinks! In school you cannot sleep (no matter how hungover you are). You cannot chew gum or tobacco. You can't kiss your girlfriend/boyfriend, even though you will likely marry them (har, har, har). You can't speak freely (No, your teacher is not dude). You can't talk on the phone (OMG wtc?). You can't dress as scantily clad as you might wish. Your days are meticulously scheduled to the minute, and your mom even makes you ride the bus now and then.
The worst part is you can't do anything about it, unless you plan on quitting, and then there goes 12-plus years of lectures, experiments, and kick ball games. But it happens. According to an ABC News story (http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2667532), some 2,500 students drop out of school every day! Obviously not all of those students are seniors, but I suspect there is an alarming number of seniors who simply quit months before they are scheduled to graduate. Why? Because they are adults, of course.
I am convinced that seniors drop out because they have been convinced that turning 18makes them an adult, when it is simply untrue, and they feel that school is no longer relevant. It's kid stuff. Seniors seem to be more combative with teachers, more resistant to school rules, and more reluctant to comply academically than other students because they simply believe that they are grown, and that such a title awards them some sort of immunity. I had a senior come to In-School Suspension because he'd been accused, perhaps wrongly, of vandalism. He said that instead of taking his punishment he was going to quit school. It smelled like pride to me, and I told him so. His mindset was, "I am an adult, and they cannot treat me this way." Sure they can, especially if you plan on graduating. The same is true in the working world. I can tell my boss where to stick it, but not if I want to eat and pay the bills.
In my opinion, seniors become discouraged with their circumstances because they have yet to acquire the valuable resource known as foresight. At present, what is important to a typical senior is Billy's party, or Tommy's Mustang, or Susy's... characteristics. It isn't "I need to put something away for retirement," or "When I get to college I am going to be clueless, so I'd better study."
I understand because I've been there. I rolled my eyes when my parents talked about responsibility, hard work, and goals. My goal was to chase girls, a task at which I was utterly pathetic. As a senior, I was driving a free car, on free gas, and complaining about it. I was the guy arguing about the drinking age with my economics teacher. I could die for my country, but I couldn't have a beer. Please, I wasn't about to die for my country, but it was the principle of the matter. I was an adult; I could do as I pleased. It took 12 years to make up for doing as I pleased as an 18-year-old child.