Though Kaylie Peters had heard all the horror stories about junior year — the SAT workload, pressure to think about your future, the most stressful year of high school — she still didn’t know what to expect. Despite the uncertainty, she decided to walk into junior year enjoying every single day of it, finding the positives in each day and working through the stress. As a lifeguard-in-training, aspiring pilot and student anticipating AP tests, Peters feels that the biggest stressor is the range of things to focus on.
“Semester one was kind of like the jumpstart, the prep work, in order to get to the stressful parts,” Peters said. “But I think once May comes around, a lot of the tests and qualifications will be over, so I can just kind of sit back and breathe.”
Peters feels like she has grown a lot since her freshman year, going into 9th grade after COVID-19 shut down schools for a year. She credits CHS for revitalizing her love of learning and regrets having dreaded the start of the school year. Peters decided to learn from the past and not give in to stress, knowing that her future self would just want her to live in the moment and enjoy the ride.
“I really didn’t know what to expect, especially going into CHS, but I really love this school so much,” Peters said. “It allowed me to open up and make friends again. It allowed me to move on from my hatred for school, and now I love it. Now I love making friends. I love learning new things. I love taking new classes. And yeah, I think CHS really helped with that.”
Peters hopes to act as a role model for her sister, in addition to paving the way for other students who might be interested in creative pursuits. Her dream for senior year is to create a cosplay club to encourage people to check it out and to foster a safe space to learn about crafting, budgets and specialized areas of expertise. She hopes to unite people in the club through a shared love of art and cosplay.
As a reward for all of this hard work, Peters looks forward to prom. Watching the current seniors enjoy the traditions they waited years for has only increased her excitement to participate. She plans to do a lot of harmless but memorable things, including donning battle regalia to get her school schedule in the arena, wearing full camouflage for the spork game and training for the field day tug of war.
“I just like really making an impact on the school that I really love and just being remembered that way,” Peters said. “Like I saw the world in a very different way, but still had fun doing it.“
Peters has decided that her senior year will be her break year before college. She hopes to make it “beautifully chaotic,” exploring things she’s never done before and getting to know who she wants to be in this world. She has always seen age as something ongoing, like the rings of a tree. Peters doesn’t think of her age as a stage of her life but rather as her past selves growing into her, making her a better person. She knows that life is temporary and wants to take it all in and enjoy the moment.
“I want to live my life with no regrets and live it to the fullest,” Peters said. “So that one day, if I do end up kicking the bucket, I won’t look back at my life and say, ‘Oh, I should have done that.’”
Peters has big plans for her future and is torn between three different careers: an animator, a commercial pilot and a facilitator for Disney Cruise Lines. While Peters currently participates in activities for all three, she knows she’ll have to make a choice for post-secondary, as there are few local colleges with good programs for all of her chosen paths. Peters feels lucky to have supportive parents to help her through this process, though she does field questions about her college plans from well-meaning family members.
“I really don’t feel the pressure,” Peters said. “I’m like, I’m going to do what I want to do. That’s my life, not yours. So deal with it.”
Gwen Galvin, a junior at Pioneer who participates in CET, shares many of Peters’ sentiments and priorities. Her parents support her dream of going to art school, though Galvin is also considering taking a gap year. Next year, she wants to start a club as well, get a lead role in CET’s play and participate more in the Pioneer High School Film Club. Galvin is good friends with many seniors, and she hopes that she will be able to fill their shoes when they leave. However, she disagrees with the common statement that high school contains the greatest years of your life.
“I do not, in fact, think that these are the greatest years of my life,” Galvin said. “I think they’re some good years, but I think I’ve got a lot more good years to come. I want [high school] to feel hopeful. I want it to feel like I can do a bunch of stuff. And I want to feel happy.”
Galvin hopes to make the most of the coming year by capitalizing on those “classic high school experiences” and making memories to look back on fondly. She still feels like a child, and was pleasantly surprised that she didn’t feel old as a junior. While Galvin doesn’t want to grow up yet, she doesn’t fear growing up and is happy with where she is in her life.
On the contrary, Noah Walter has mixed feelings about growing up. He realized that becoming an upperclassman meant accepting that he would have to move on with his life, leaving behind a phase of his life that he liked for a world of uncertainty.
“I want to go on with my life afterward,” Walter said. “But at the same time, it also kind of scared me because I don’t completely know what I want to do with my life.”
Though Walter is unsure what he wants to major in, he knows that he wants to go to college and could definitely see himself pursuing a career in music. He feels a lot differently about high school now, and credits the seniors who welcomed him to high school.
When I was a freshman, having all these seniors help me and all that was really big,” Walter said. “It helped me feel more comfortable in high school.”
Walter is excited for his second semester of junior year and wants to give back to Forum by becoming a role model for the freshmen. He is also hoping to hang out more with others both in and outside of school, something that he regrets not doing as much as an underclassman.
“Prioritize school,” Walter said. “But also make sure you’re maintaining a life outside of school. That’s my advice.”
While Walter doesn’t know what he wants to pursue yet, he doesn’t feel worried about taking on more responsibility. To him, it’s just part of transitioning into adulthood. Walter, like Galvin and Peters, is ready to grow into the person he wants to be.
All three of these juniors have different plans and dreams for the future, but they share the same hopes of finding themselves and helping other people. To simplify: eleventh grade is the perfect time to figure out what you want to focus on and to take steps toward achieving what you want in your life.
“My parents are just like, ‘Whatever you do, just be good at it,’” Galvin said. “Like, I can do that.”
