Through my eyes, the best way to describe junior year was that it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. 

Socially, it was my best year yet. I had friends, new and old, who I enjoyed spending time with both in and out of the classroom. But academically, I faced some of the longest hours and most complex problems I had ever seen.

Being a junior, the year starts with the premise of hope; you are doing what you can to boost your college application, and you know the layout of the school. You are familiar with a few of the teachers, and you finally have the advantage of being an upperclassman.

I certainly felt this aspect of the transition into my third year in high school. As an upperclassman, I was finally one of the well-experienced students on campus again. I had found ways to establish myself in various activities and a community of people with whom I connected and who made me feel confident in myself.

This confidence that I felt as an upperclassman was electric; it motivated me to keep pushing and see the results of my hard work over the previous two years. Nothing feels quite like the sensation of pride you feel when you start to see results after hours of dedication and studying as a student, and this feeling flows throughout junior year as you experience every aspect of academic and social success that you are bound to encounter.

Going through the year, the emotional ups and downs reached astronomical heights as I saw a shift not only within myself, but in my peers as well. It felt as though we had all gained a higher level of maturity in our newfound determination. We saw parts of ourselves more clearly than we had in years past, uncovering new aspects of identity that had previously lain dormant.

Now that junior year has come to a close, I can still say that the increase in self-confidence and identity is still there, but there is also a greater vision of the future that can be daunting on the horizon. 

This is the year that we began to see the first glimpses of that great big future we had been dreaming of and planning for years. There is purpose to the studies in our fields of interest, the college application comes closer by the minute, and the colors of the future have suddenly brightened before us as our reality comes flying towards us. 

This reality most definitely came with its struggles, though, as the classes I took and the standards of every assignment rose to new heights. The workload of junior year was far more than I had seen in past years, as my AP classes required hours of studying, the math assignments had multiple parts for every question, and I was suddenly expected to perform every skill I had learned at a higher level.

This rigorous workload led to immense feelings of burnout and plateaus of motivation throughout the year, as we were expected to complete assignments with virtually no breaks. Junior Aiden Peña said, “I saw that more people are burning out and are just ready for senior year.”

Fighting the burnout was especially hard at times, when it felt like there was a to-do list a million miles long for everything that I had committed to. Remembering the reason for my hard work, the future I had begun to see for myself, was what really pulled me out of it. Remembering everything that I had to do to achieve my dreams kept me going through the needless assignments and studying for every test. 

Many of my peers shared this surreal feeling of the pressure-filled possibilities that await us in the change that was coming. Junior Carriedee Gonzalez said, “It’s a big shift from previous years. All of a sudden, everything seems more real for everyone. Getting a job, driver’s license, SAT, and thinking about college. Life, for me and what it seems like for everyone else, just came more into focus, and our future seems slightly less blurry. And socially, it feels like it brought so many of us closer together.”

This change was exhausting at times, and it felt like there was no end to the mountain of homework that was waiting for me every night after rehearsal. On top of that, the stress that filled me from taking my driver’s license test and repeated attempts at the SAT crowded my mind, making those minutes seem to drag on for hours upon hours.

Looking back at the events and trials of my junior year, I feel as though it is safe to say that it may have been my most challenging year yet, but also my most prosperous one so far. 

Our Senior year is on the horizon, that important year that we have dreamed about since childhood. The excitement that has been building up to this moment will all be worth it once we get to experience the rewards of our 12 years of hard work and the endless possibilities that await us.