Tips for Future Junior and Senior Classes from a Former WCFS Graduate

By the One and Only (As Far As I Know) Nancy Lorraine Cox

To you who will one day graduate from High School I say: Good luck and God bless! Ok, so that’s not exactly what I’m supposed to say, but it works. I’m going to give you some tips and ideas to help make your senior and junior year an exciting and fun time, by using my experiences as a junior and a senior. First off, make sure you get involved with your class. DO NOT expect someone else to do all the work! You are it! Do not expect that you can just show up on graduation day and enjoy the fruits of somebody else’s labor. Reality check: that is not the way to go!!! It is inconsiderate and rude. Sorry for the bluntness, but somebody has to say it! If you want to have a good time during your junior and senior years you need to get involved with your class mates. It takes people to make a class work.

With that said I will move on! The WCFS staff realized that the seniors would come to their first meeting and just stare at each other, and not get anything done. Thus the staff decided it would be better to get all that staring done as a junior class, so by time they became seniors they would know each other, and be able to get right down to business. That is basically what the junior class was intended for; it is also a chance to raise more money for your graduation, class trip, etc. That is why it is important to get involved with your junior class. Do not use the age old excuse: “I’m too busy with school!”. It makes no difference, everyone in your class is going to be busy, believe me, I know! This is a good opportunity to learn responsibility, self discipline, motivation and getting your priorities right. Let’s face it; you’re only going to graduate from high school once (hopefully) and so you need to make the best of what you do in those final two years of it. A good thing to try to get done in school so you have it off your chest early is to get your research paper done in your sophomore or junior year. This will cause a huge weight to be lifted off of you, and then you have more time in your senior year to focus on getting involved with your class.

Make sure your parents get involved with your class too. Remember, they were high school students once themselves, and they have a lot of great tips to help you make smoother sailing of it. My class had three moms help especially with the graduation preparations and the rehearsal dinner, and because of that, we had one of the most elaborate and enjoyable rehearsal dinners and receptions.

Juniors, make sure you start getting orders for the Mid Year Teachers Conference way ahead of time. This will prevent a lot of last minute craziness. Try to get all the food in bulk and you can even get businesses like McDonalds to donate the paper goods and condiments. My Junior Class was the first class to go on a Junior Class trip. We went to Florida, and had a great time. We were able to afford this because we did a lot more fundraising besides that at the Mid Year Teachers Conference. We did Krispy Kremes, and Gatorade at Workshops. You can do a whole lot more different fundraisers.

Juniors, make sure you get on top of the Seniors to find out what is required of you on Graduation day. Seniors, make sure you get the details of the graduation taken care of way in advance. Get to the junior class as soon as possible so they know what is expected of them. Don’t wait until May to contact them!!!  If you want nice invitations, i.e. invitations with the school seal on them, make sure you get your orders to the printer’s way in advance. I recommend Mercersburg Printing, but they need your design and orders in like October, or November, NOT March which is when my class finally did it, so we weren’t able to have our school’s seal on them. If you have everyone working together, then the work will not be that much and it will leave a lot of room for you to have an awesome year! If you start out with the right attitude, and if you’re willing to get involved, them you will have an awesome class. You will make great memories and maybe even some life long friends.

I hope this has been some help you. Just remember, God has placed you in a family for a purpose. He has given you certain abilities for a purpose. He wants you use those abilities to glorify Him, not waste them or not use them at all. Like the parable that Jesus told of the wise and unwise servants. Their master gave them each some money, which you can think of as talents and abilities, and then left on a long journey. When he came back, two of his servants had invested his money in something, and in return got more back, but one servant hid his money and had nothing to show but that he had wasted his time by not investing what he had been given. God does not want us to just sit around on our hands and waste the time and talents that He has given us. We need to learn how to use those abilities, and a good way to do that is just by trying.

Ask God to help you to use your abilities that He has given you for His glory and don’t waste his precious gift of time. Read Matt. 25:14-30 and Phil. 3:12-21. Your junior and senior year will be as enjoyable as you make it, if you choose to have a great time, you will; if you choose to be thoroughly bored, then you will be. Remember, God has called us to be His children, and if we don’t use the abilities that He has given us, then He will give them to another, and we will be left with nothing. God bless. I hope you all have a great time in school, however long it may be.