Which Year of High School is the Hardest?

As Fair Grove enters the final quarter of the school year, the seniors are working hard to finish the year strong, as well as laying preparations for their future.

A handful of seniors were asked what was their hardest year of high school was, and many answered their junior year; however, they all had different reasons. 

Gracin Wood stated, “The hardest year in high school was my junior year. It’s not only hard because you are starting to take high-level courses, but also because you have to start thinking about your future and becoming responsible for not only classes but everything else you do in high school.” 

Sara Beals, who also said her hardest year was junior year, stated “It was really difficult, not because the classes were harder than the rest, but the fact that I had made so many friends in the 2019 class, it was hard to go back to school that next fall!”

“Another thing about my junior year [that was] really hard was I didn’t get to have my last quarter of the year, the COVID-19 virus really put a damper on my junior year! Which means I didn’t get my junior track season. That was really hard for me because I went to state my sophomore year and didn’t do as well as I wanted to, so that was going to be the time I made up for that,” Beals stated.

Even though junior year was a popular answer, some other seniors had different answers.

Lauren Kennard answered from her perspective, “I believe that my hardest year was my sophomore year because that is when I started getting into some upper-level classes that really challenged me. I had to learn how to study along with learning all the material.”

Tanner Lumley’s response stated, “My freshman year was probably the hardest. I seemed to have the most core classes and they were pretty hard because I started high school math and science in 8th grade.”

Another senior, Matt Sutherland, shared, “I think my hardest year in high school would have definitely been my senior year, not just [because of] classes or anything, but I think it’s because of COVID. Just trying to get back into things and make things as normal as possible but with COVID, it’s just been harder to want to get up and put a mask on for eight hours or to make sure that I’m not breaking any COVID rules.”

Within roughly 57 days the Fair Grove 2020-2021 school year will come to a close, ushering in summer break. Commencement will change the role of the current seniors from high school students to young adults, pursuing their future goals of education or employment. Following commencement, as with so many things, the reflection of this year’s graduating class will be less about these hard times and more about the good memories they have made in their high school career.