Everyone knows seniors are excited about graduating, but why are they truly thrilled about it and what plans do they have in the future? Most of West High’s grads’ are looking forward to college but,4 are they going in-state or out of state? There are so many questions that are left unanswered when they graduate that most people don’t have any idea what their friends are doing after high school.

There are so many reasons to be excited about graduating; you can live more freely, go get a career, and you don’t have to be in the high school grind anymore. Senior Raymond Barrington, said he’s excited about graduating, “I get to finally be a bit more in what I want to do.” A lot of seniors seem to feel this way too. Senior Mitchell Elia said, “Why I’m excited about graduating is that I can finally fulfill that feeling where when you wake up, you want to go back to sleep.” There are others that just want to start a new life after school also.

Some seniors feel that it’s time to end their relationship with West High. Dawson Ellingworth said, “I’m excited to graduate because I’ve put in my time, I’ve done everything I could to make the most out of my four years and now it is time for me to move on. It’s not West… It’s me… West has served me well and now I get to go out into the world and show it what I have to offer.” West High is not taking this break up well. There are reports of West buying gallons of ice cream at a time to eat it sorrows away.

In a survey, 63 people of a 100 students revealed they are going to go to college after graduation. Ray Barrington said, “I’m going to college to get a Process Technology Degree.” Ray has taken Berglunds Process Technology course and really enjoys it. That class really helped him decide what he wanted to do. Mitchell Elia said, “I’m going to go to UAA and become a pharmacy technician and make dolla dolla bill y’all.” Obviously he is expecting to roll in the dough.

Senior Dawson Ellingworth is planning on playing hockey for the Kenai River Brown Bears, which is a North American Hockey League team. He says, “I want to go play for them to help jumpstart a potential career as a professional hockey player.” Dawson was the captain of West High’s state championship winning hockey team and is hoping that success will carry on to Kenai and the rest of his hockey career.

Every senior has their own tale about what their future holds. There are so many different paths they can take and no two seniors will take the same one. The senior class doesn’t know what the future holds for them, but they are going to take the bull by the horns and buckle up for the crazy ride what some people call their “lives.”