Seniors are entering the next chapters of their lives after 12 years of waking up tiredly for school in the mornings and walking into class. However, with graduation less than a week away, how are our seniors spending their time after high school?

Charles Herbert Flowers High School graduating class of 2022 last day of school was May 13, 2022. They wore pajamas on their last day of school because they were “tired of school.”

They’re enjoying their free time at home and their day jobs now that they’re officially finished, thinking about their future.

Seniors have come a long way in accepting the day-to-day challenges that life has to offer during their educational and life journeys. It was finally time to put down their pencils and look how far they had come.

Following the pandemic, the class of 2022 is the first to resume somewhat normal student activities. Long school days, sports games, in-person club meetings, group projects, late homework nights, friendships, and homecoming week filled the school year 2021-202.

We honor the Class of 2022 for being three-time first-place homecoming week champions, which has never happened before at Flowers High School.

Seniors are now out of school. Some already starting their futures in jobs, the military, or entrepreneurship, and some of them are just ready to graduate. Students have expressed their feelings the weeks after getting out of school, saying it feels surreal.

“Part of me is still like, I should be in school right now, but I then realize that I closed that chapter of my life,” said Maire Abongwa

Some seniors, still go to school to attend after-school activities like clubs and sports, while others enjoy the break. Their weekends are elongated, and even though they still wake up early in the mornings for other means like their day jobs, but have the option to sleep in if they want.

“I’m working on myself,” said Marie. “I do plan on starting a summer internship, but I really want to get to know myself again because you do lose yourself when you’re under a lot of stress.”

That stress will not be missed by students about to graduate. The memories and the people who shaped them however will be as friends and teachers say their goodbyes to each other as they now tread their own paths.

“The thing about school besides the bad memories people have there you have all the other good memories, all the social interactions,” said Pedro Balbuena. ”The teachers sometimes you get pretty close to,”

Seniors are looking forward to meeting new friends in college they have decided to attend and even maybe staying in touch with friends they have now. The chances of students or teachers running into each other in the future are slim, but not impossible, and they will all have stories to tell in years to come.

They expect their summers to be filled with fun and laughter before they officially start their futures.

Seniors had an important meeting about Senior Signing Day on April 28th, before they signed out of high school, about two weeks before their last day. Mrs. Diedra Screws, the 12th-grade administrator, highlighted an important fact during the meeting to demonstrate how the class of 2022 survived significant changes.

“You are the first class to have a Senior Signing Day, post-pandemic,” Mrs. Screws said to the students of 2022.

Graduation for the students will be held on Wednesday, June 1st at the Xfinity Center located at the University of Maryland, College Park. The ceremony will start at noon. Seniors will receive four tickets to give to family and friends so they can celebrate their great accomplishments. The event will be live-streamed so everyone else can watch as seniors walk across the stage.

As Principal Dr. Brown has sung every day in the morning announcement “We are a Mecca of Excellence”