Our entire lives we envision what our senior year would look like, or at least I did. I would spend hours thinking of all the fun I would be having, the parties I would go to, the random day trips I would take on the weekends with my friends; you know, the cheesy stuff. Little did I know, all of that was a false reality created by the countless teeny-bopper movies I would watch on Disney Channel.

Senior year is nothing like I thought it would be. Instead of spending my last days of high school hanging out with friends, I am constantly trying to catch up on the assignments for six different classes that have rapidly approaching due dates. My schedule is hectic and it’s hard to find time to stop and take a breath. I don’t spend my weekends going on day trips or going to parties because I am trying to catch up on the sleep I’ve missed over the course of a week. There also isn’t much time for fun when I’m filling out countless scholarship applications and the never-ending forms needed to apply to college.

Movies and TV shows never show this because, if I’m being completely honest, it isn’t the most enjoyable time in a person’s life. I would never watch a movie about a high school senior who is struggling to get through the day if I had the option of watching a different high school senior enjoying their final days of high school.

It took me awhile to even realize why my last year was nothing like I thought it would be. I kept trying to believe that there was going to be some kind of shift where everything would become exactly like I wanted it to be: a time when all the stars would align and everything would make sense. Then it hit me, the reason senior year is nothing like what you see in movies is because the truth is, movies are nothing but a false reality of what we want our lives to look like.

Senior year is the year where you realize adulthood is upon you and you can’t stop it. The lack of sleep, countless hours of work, and a small social life are all things to expect from the impending immersion into adulthood that is just a few months away. That’s the real truth behind senior year. It is the time where we learn how to live in the real world, not the world dreamed up by script writers and directors.