It's March. Spring is fast approaching. Out West, where I am, it is never cold. This time of year, however, the smell of orange blossoms start to hang in the air. The lawns are still green.

For high school students, the countdown begins. Basketball season wraps in a month or so and then it's Spring Break, and then maybe Prom and then-boom-graduation. School is no longer marked by academic milestones.

The idea that the senior year of high school is really just a transitional year is not a new one. Some education reformers have suggested that at least half the year be scrapped all together. After all, many second semester seniors only have 3-4 hours of school a day. Once college admissions notices come in, there hardly seems to be much reason to show up at all. Some ambitious students will make the most of the time-diving into a new passion, or taking a job. After all, high school marks the symbolic end of adolescence. Senior year is the door through which we pass into proverbial adulthood.

For the rest of the students, there is hope in programs like Wise Individualized Senior Experience (WISE), a non-profit that calls itself a bridge between academia and the real world. Students spend their mornings at regular high school, but fill idle afternoons with internships at financial firms, law offices or courts. In doing so, they get a taste of the real world without all the responsibility.

Any good period of transition involves growth and challenge. For all of the academic slowdown of senior year, it is also a hotbed of opportunity. Don't know what you want to do with your future? Ok. Now's the time to try on a few pairs of shoes and see which ones fit. College graduation will be here before you know it. Then the real world really begins. Why not get a head-start?

Labels: Battling Senioritis