It’s October 10th, and the end is nigh as the early action deadlines for most schools creep up on us faster than the ghosts on our neighbor’s lawn. Ridge High School students are scrambling to balance their usual workload with their college essays, applications, and all the senior meetings. 

The first of many struggles on our journey is the Common Application essay. 

Summarize the most integral or defining part of your life within 650 words. 

Searching through seventeen years of life to find that one moment is daunting enough, and putting it into words is much harder. Then we encounter the supplementals, another weight on our shoulders: with each college requiring as many as 6 supplemental essays, students now have to creatively summarize their love for their major, the college, and everything in between. 

Now for everything else: the grades, extracurriculars and the rest of your high school life are painstakingly loaded onto an online application. After pressing send on the application, it’s over — at least for a little while. 

For once, our high levels of stress are replaced with the excitement and eagerness to complete a fresh chapter of their lives. Seniors are looking forward to the first of many lasts in Ridge High and Basking Ridge itself before they move away for college. Of these bittersweet moments, one finds oneself cheering at the next football game (specifically our last homecoming game); senior prom, a final night of celebration with the school and one last chance to dress formally before the dreaded and simultaneously long awaited graduation; and graduation itself. Both parents’ and teachers’ eyes will be filled with tears as their children and students leave them to fulfill their potential in higher education and in the real world. From one student in the class of 2020 to everyone else, we all did a great job.