Walking through the halls of the high school, seventh-graders may find it scary or stressful while seniors might do it without a second thought.

Seniors Caelin Wingender and Christina Kerkman both agree that being a senior in the high school is quite different from being a seventh-grader as they recalled their first year in the building. 

“I feel like as a seventh-grader, I was kind of scared walking around in the halls just because there was all these big kids,” Kerkman said. “And now as a senior… I don’t really feel like I’m bigger than anybody else, but I’m also not…shy or like scared of anybody.”

Both seniors said that their typical school day is very different from when they were in seventh grade because of differences in the classes they take and their attitude in school. Wingender thinks this has its benefits.

“I think my day is a lot different than it ever used to be,” Wingender said. “I still like my core classes like English or math, but most of my schedule is what I want to do, so my school day is a lot longer, but it’s also better because I’m not doing stuff I don’t want to.”

Along with their typical day, both seniors noted that several trends today are different from when they were in seventh grade.

“In seventh grade, dabbing, fidget spinners [were popular],” Wingender said. “And now it really depends, like Tik Tok and stuff.”

Both seniors also reflected on changes in staff since they were in seventh grade.

“We have different staff… like we lost Mr. Henkel,” Kerkman said. “We’ve had a couple of different principals.” 

Kerkman believes that the senior class has changed and grown since seventh grade.

“I feel like in general, people have grown apart a little bit. We used to hang out more as like a big group, but now we kind of just do our own things,” Kerkman said. ”But we all matured and we do our own things now.”

As people grow, their interests may change, and this is the case for Kerkman.

“I used to think I wanted to go into medical and now I’ve switched to business and real estate and I’m set on that,” Kerkman said.

Wingender’s career interests, however, haven’t changed much.

“I wanted to go into something like drawing or art-based. I don’t think that’s entirely changed,” Wingender said. “With the program I’m going into in college, it’s going to be more focused on merging technology and art, and I think that’s similar to what I wanted to do back then but a lot more evolved version of it.”

Wingender thinks that comparing himself to when he was in seventh grade is difficult because of how much time has passed and how much he has changed as a person.

“It’s not fair to compare yourself to how you were back then,” Wingender said. “Because people change so much.”