Days Leading Up to Graduation

Written by Devora Godfrey

With graduation coming faster and faster, students are getting more and more excited. The next month is one of the fastest months to go by. Darby has done a lot of things to make it fun for the seniors. Some of these events include a spirit week, prom, and senior-only activities. Prom, which happens at the beginning of the month, is a big deal. The seniors and juniors have a dance that is held at some fancy venue. The girls wear fancy long dresses and the boys wear nice suits and ties. The prom is held on the first weekend of May this year. I was able to talk to some seniors and how they felt about their last school dance coming up. I spoke to Tayen Brown. I asked her what she is looking forward to the most with prom? “I’m really excited about taking pictures and getting all dressed up.” I then asked how she is feeling considering it’s her last high school dance? “It's exciting but also sad. I'm glad though this year I am able to have more of a normal school dance compared to how the seniors had it last year with time slots.”

Outside of prom, the school had its last class meeting with the seniors. This meeting included information on a graduation cap and gown pick-ups, and how the graduation will be run. It also talked about special things coming up, for example signing day for some of the students and celebrations that are planned to happen. Signing day was that next week and was exciting and a big deal for the ones who were signed to a school, whether that be for sports or other things. I talked to senior Alex Smith who signed to Indian University for track and field. I asked him how he felt sitting there and signing in front of friends and family? “It was really cool being able to share that moment with them. It was nice seeing them wearing their Indiana gear and it showed how much they cared for me and how much they wanted to support me.” I then asked if he was looking forward more to graduation knowing he will be going to another school next year to run track? “I sort of have mixed emotions about it. I’m super excited to be doing track at the next level and I can’t wait to get started. I’m also a little nervous because I’ll be surrounded by a lot of older people that have been there for a while. I’m sure it will be super fun to make new friends but for now, I’m a bit nervous.”

Graduation is a big part of people's lives and the school has tried to make events big and exciting for them before they send off the students. Graduation is in a number of weeks now and is becoming so real to a lot of students, with a lot of different emotions. Some are excited and some are scared. It’s going to be exciting to see what everyone does after graduation and all they accomplish!