Gil Alon
Former Managing Editor of Opinions
Last year, I remember my history teacher facing the class with a large flowchart of all the senior history course electives written on the board behind her and I felt incredibly stressed.
I went from writing down “juniors history” on my course selection sheet to having to decide between what seemed like an endless list of options, and I wasn’t alone: My entire class felt overwhelmed. The wrong choice could potentially ruin our senior year.
Looking back one year later, that feeling of anxiety is completely justified.
While some of my friends have no homework, fascinating discussions and are excited to enter the class every day, I amongst others begrudgingly enter the class that we regret choosing.
Each class became different than what I thought it would be and I realized enjoying a class, at least for me, relies much more on the teacher and my peers than the subject being taught.
For students who are like me who have no strong passion or love for one particular topic, the classroom environment is what differentiates between their favorite and least favorite class.
Since it is incredibly hard for teachers to provide an unbiased reflection on how classes are really like at Newton South, the best advice I could give is ask and listen to older classmates.
Asking upperclassmen who have been through a year of this class provides the best and most relevant insight into classes and actually applying their feedback will improve your senior year experience tremendously.
I would take the most unique classes South offers for senior year that are completely different than the typical English, history or science courses that you have taken for the past decade. I chose to take Neuroscience as my science course this year, and it has been a really surprising and exciting change.
Take a risk; it will pay off.
And after reflecting on my four years, I strongly believe that this mindset should govern course decisions in every year of high school; all students should just take the classes they want.
Newton South offers incredibly unique classes and some of my best memories and friends came out of those classes. I entered school determined to change, whether it be because I knew no other student taking it or the level was not high enough.
Take the art class that you will not excel in, but really want to at least try. Take the wellness elective that sounds fun, even though all your friends are taking another course.
For students concerned about college, one course will not alter the likelihood of acceptance to a school.
Even though I believe that all students should push themselves to take challenging courses, they should always leave room in their schedule for that one class just for fun.
That one fun class will be a stress reliever and make attending school everyday much more manageable, and even enjoyable.
A perfect schedule is a balance between challenging courses to ensure that you are actually learning and becoming a better student, but also fun and enjoyable classes to ensure that you are not miserable for an entire school year.
Especially for senior year, listen to this year’s seniors and trust yourself to make the right choice: it is a crucial one.
