By Maison Tollas
High School Bucket List
There are some obvious feats that you should achieve before you graduate high school. These include: join a sport, a club, apply for college, go to a football game, get good grades, etc. But there is a series of less “cliché” (school-appropriate) accomplishments that you should really complete before your graduate high school.
- Treat the classroom.
- Bring cookies, or cupcakes to class one day. Seriously, it would make class so much better. Maybe before a calculus test; or on a work day, surprise the classroom. Pencils would be a heavenly treat as well. Board Policy has nothing on you. This is your constitutional right.
- See/follow/start a High School Band.
(Courtesy of Aaron Viland)
- The fact that you actually know the members makes seeing the band so much more exciting.Attend a show by 12th; or Evening Glow. They are two fantastic senior
bands.
- Pull off a Senior Prank
- Please, make it better than pulling the fire alarm and putting our fire-drill skills to good use. Make it memorable- but don’t get caught.
- Write a note to yourself for your next milestone.
- On your wedding day, to your future children, to the day you graduate college. These are all great moments to share with little, inexperienced you.
- Get a job.
- I recommend in fast-food, so you can know my pain- I mean…bread is life. It is my passion, my expertise. A loaf in every arm.
- Have a mental health day.
- A new Illinois state law has limited school-skip days to nine. Therefore I cannot have the luxury of more of these. That does not mean, however, you kids with less-flaky attendance cannot enjoy these endeavors. Seriously, take a break. Write your paper. Relax. You deserve this. It’s very understandable; sometimes school can just be too much to handle. Take a mental health day. My cousin, graduate of 2014, was number one in her class and got a 36 on her ACT. She stressed the importance of mental health days. She took a lot of them. It’s a good thing.
- Learn to do something that you can hold over your future children’s heads and have them continuously strive to live-up to your expectations; but in reality, all they really want is to play the clarinet.
- And then they can star in a C-rated Disney movie.
- Volunteer.
- Believe me, when you get to senior year, you’ll regret this. That empty spot on your college application will confirm.
- Have a sleepover on a school night.
- Honestly, if you are considering any of your friends as future roommates, see how well they can share a bathroom.
- Register to vote when you are 18.
- Prove to your parents that you are as adult as them because you can vote now.
- Buy at least one yearbook.
- You’ll regret the lack of material memories if you opt out of the purchase.
- Learn how to adult.
- Taxes, laundry, making your own hair-appointments, how to change a tire. All important things in the adult world.
- Start saving money.
- Seriously. Don’t go to college broke. You only get poorer.
- Don’t get arrested.
- Just don’t.
- Learn how to drive, and get a car.
- Don’t be that loser who waited until they turned eighteen. Even if you don’t have your own car, you can always be the designated driver of your friends’. Teenagers are stupid. Don’t let them be stupid.
- Watch The Breakfast Club.
- If you haven’t watched this movie before you graduate, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Allison Reynolds is my spirit animal.
- Rent-a-Senior.
- Rent-a-senior is probably the best thing that this school has ever allowed. Participation is a must.
- Make senior skip day count.
- Do something that you would be proud of putting in a scrapbook. Don’t waste the day. Go to the Field Museum. Tina is a majestic beast.