Graduation… or was it Prom?

The final month of my senior year was probably the busiest month of my entire educational career.  Between the National Honor Society induction ceremony, prom, and preparing for graduation, I had little room to sleep – let alone do anything else.  As May draws to a close, though, I find myself wondering what the “big finish” of high school really is.

I have always thought of it as being graduation.  After thirteen hard years of work, why shouldn’t it be?  But after living through my senior year, I’m starting to wonder…

Is the “big finish” of high school actually the prom?

Students – particularly girls – can spend hundreds of dollars on prom.  The clothes, the accessories, the prom bid itself – not to mention the “after-prom” activities and the pre-prom activities, which can range anywhere from a stop at a burger joint to a two-hour dinner at an upscale restaurant.

Do high schools sponsor “after-graduation” activities?  How many people spend upwards of $50 at a pre-graduation dinner?

For me, graduation will always be the big-bang ending, but I’ve never really been a typical student.  What part of high school do you think is the real “big finish”: graduation or prom?

A Twilighter Interview

Think of one thing that you absolutely adore.

Got it?  Okay.  Now imagine taking that thing you adore and doing something with it – even if it isn’t your own – and making that a launchboard into your future.

That’s what eighteen-year-old Sam is doing.

Samantha, known as the “Twifamily Interviewer” on MySpace, has been gathering information through surveys for quite a while.  She first started the interview process because she wanted to find out what people really thought about the series, but soon became more enthusiastic about the subject.  The project has gone from a simple survey into a gathering of information that Samantha hopes to send to the company producing the Twilight films and a set of questions that she plans to send to the interviewees’ favorite cast members.

At the time I contacted Samantha, she said that she had interviewed 484 people; the tally on her MySpace page goes up nearly every time I see her status updated.”All in all, everyone seems to love Twilight,” she told me through MySpace message.  “They love Stephenie Meyer as an author and want to read more of her work.” 

Luckily for Twilight and Meyer fans, the Twilight saga contains four novels – Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn – and Meyer has also completed a stand-alone novel called The Host, which incorporates similar themes of romance and perseverance.  Fans can also hope for more upcoming stories from the author.

When I asked her how she had learned about the Twilight books, she told me, “I saw the books online way before I knew they were being made into a movie.  When I heard it was being made into a movie, I went to get the books and could not put them down.”  Some of her interviewees had similar stories, and she says that a lot of them have similar answers to the twenty questions that she uses on her interview form.

What, though, draws this high school senior to Twilight?  She says that she loves the romance between Edward and Bella, but “I personally enjoy the books because of how emotional [they] are.”

Of course, the survey isn’t just a game for a bored teenage girl.  “I’m also hoping that doing this interview will help me get in this line of work some day,” she admitted in private correspondence.  As a writer just a little younger than Samantha, that’s something I can understand perfectly well.

First Day of School

Ah, to be a senior.

Man, I feel old.

So here’s the quick runthrough of the day:

• Early bird science class = amazing.  Scientific Research is probably going to be an awesome start to my day.
• I ran into Symantha much too often.  (“We have to stop meeting like this.”  “So what’re you doin’ tonight?”)
• Helped out in one of the classrooms for volunteer hours.  Computer monitors are very heavy.
• Saw two of my adopted freshmen at lunch.  Yeah, I AM in dress code, thanks.  And no, I was NOT a bad tour guide, you just didn’t pay attention!
• Worked on “Dance, Dance” all through Academic Assistance.  (That’s study hall, for you lay people.)  Used my own laptop, since the school ones suck.
• Uncle Randy is the greatest.

Some of you may have understood that.  Some of you, not so much so.  Happy trails, my friends.  I’ll post a real update later this week.

P. S.  My friend Tyler’s face looked something like this.

Murder!

And this, my friends, is why I love my sister.

Yup.

If you look close, you’ll see both of us in there.

(Songs are not owned by me.  They’re the property of their respective owners.)