Four years of intense public schooling at the high school level had to teach us seniors something, right?

After a quartet of what seemed like nonstop workload, legend has told of how the senior has given so much to make it to graduation. Now it is time to learn how much the Class of 2018 has received during this trying period.

Senior Andrew Pickett began his high school journey as a “scared” and “skinny” freshman, anxious to make a good impression amongst his classmates.

“I was nervous to go to school daily,” said Pickett, “because I wanted to be liked by peers, be successful in school, and enjoy my time in high school overall. Now, I am not as nervous as I was then, I go to school and look forward to seeing my peers and am much more confident. I am also not as skinny because I’ve gained 50-plus pounds.” Pickett gave a shout out to Life Fitness Coach William Whisenant for his physical growth, which helped him be a successful contributor to the football team, especially in his senior year where he completed what he thought to be his greatest achievement.

“My greatest high school achievement was beating Liberty in Football my senior year. Even though we didn’t get it done against them in the playoffs, it was an annual goal to beat them, and to finally be able to pull it off was a monumental accomplishment for myself and teammates.”

Pickett was able to defeat his high school fears through his football career, but as he continues down the football path, college fears begin to surface.

“My greatest fear after graduation is being able to succeed on my own two feet,” Pickett said. “After college the “real” life will start and I will be in charge of everything on my own, which is a scary, but exciting thought!”

Pickett wishes to be remembered as a “hard working, determined kid that did whatever it took to succeed”.

Senior Alex LaFleur began his high school journey a “really awkward and weird” freshman, worried about how others thought about him.

“I had a terrible fashion sense,” said LaFleur. “My greatest fear was hearing that everyone around me hated my guts.”

Now, a young LaFleur wouldn’t even be able to recognize his older, changed self. “Now I got swag, I’m less awkward, and I really don’t care about the judgements of my peers,” LaFleur said, adding that his greatest high school achievement came in his junior year and represented his own bildungsroman of sorts.

“I ate both a Grand Slam Slugger and a Belgium Waffle Grand Slam from Denny’s in one sitting, with help from [senior] Rutger Scott,” LaFleur said, his greatest fear going forward is failure and not being able to move past his own mistakes. Despite this, he means to continue to make his dreams a reality. “I want to be remembered as a spunky, quirky, relatable geek, who likes video games and comics,” LaFleur concluded.

Like many others, senior Andy Whitted began his high school journey “timid” and unable to shake the opinions of others over the way he went through his day.

“[Back then was] different from now,” said Whitted, “because I care a lot less about what people think about me and more about being around people that make me happy and can make me laugh.”

Whitted’s greatest fear as a freshman was being called out by an upperclassmen for something he was doing, but now his fears are more college focused, and based around occupation rather than what is acceptable to modern societal standards. Now, instead of following example, Whitted hopes to set one.

“I want to be remembered as someone who people liked, a role model, someone people though was a nice guy and someone underclassman wanted to be like. My greatest high school achievement is becoming varsity swim captain my senior year and being one of the forefront swimmers for probably our greatest year swimming at KR,” Whitted said.

While they’re almost done making high school memories, seniors have many that will stick with them forever.