The End

As we approach the month of May, begins to change; and believe me, it ain’t pretty.

That’s because May means the end. Finals. Last chance. Students flock to the Library Media Center, the Learning Lab, and before and after-school study sessions. Dark-purple eye rings become an established trend among sleep-deprived IB/AP students, while defiant smirks are displayed by those who curse finals. The theater department polishes their act, calmly scrambling to put the finishing touches on their show. Athletes train harder for championships and hobble, sore, through the halls. Grouchy seniors, coiled tightly, try to make last-minute college decisions.

So what does all this mean?

Tears.

And lots, and lots, of coffee.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel this year times out. I am not ready for it to be May. It happens every year—I should be used to this feeling by now. Somehow, though, it creeps up on me, attacking in the dark. Preparation for the end is so macabre, and I feel students are struggling now more than ever. They’re feeling the full weight of a year’s accumulated knowledge, and squint to retain it all. Meanwhile, as their pens are scratching and their noses are stuck in textbooks, day, weeks pass by unnoticed, marked only by how-many-hours-away finals are.

Is this how we’re supposed to spend our critical, defining years? Granted, no teenager wants to think they’re mortal. Then again, teenagedom is, in itself, mortal. Are we subject to pass our seven years of teenagedom passively? Waiting, preparing until the “end?” That’s absurd. We can’t live life from one big test to the next. We have to break away.

Parents, enroll us in sports, theater, academic clubs and more, to ensure we do just that. Sure, it takes away from homework time, but it gives us a good reality check. It reminds us that life isn’t only coffee, tears, and dark-purple eye rings. These activities prepare us for life outside of the educational realm. The life besides grouchiness, soreness, scrambling, and sleep deprivation. It’s a reminder that “all that” will come to an end. Suddenly, May comes along and we look forward to the journey ahead. We remember that ends are also beginnings.

And in that way, we are immortal.

Funny how teenage philosophy works out.