Senior year is defined by memories, laughter that will fade faster than the senior sunrises, and whirlwinds of emotion. However, a key factor of senior year is the countless fees.
Prom, college, senior activity, road trips to Florida, and everything that falls in between.
Prom is a time for glamorization, a Hollywood night where dresses glow under the lights, and where each moment is cherished by photo booths, makeup that sits perfectly, and hair styled to the heavens.
But prom is pricey. The dress can easily run up to $500, the shoes $120 if you aim for quality, hair for $300, the makeup for $100. If you want real food, not the salads the school serves, food can turn into $50.
As someone who works for $12 an hour, hardly earning 20 hour weeks, prom evaporated my entire paycheck. I spent my advisory writing numbers on the board hoping the numbers would shrink themselves and the extra zero would fade.
At the sight of these numbers, I’d suggest budgeting and before senior year do the opposite of me, save every penny you earn.
With piling expenses, it’s easy to say that prom isn’t worth it, or it’s a gimmick for schools to take the money from students hoping to live their childhood fantasies. While these are plausible answers, prom is a final memory before we walk the stage and never see each other again.
And as a senior the thought of losing my paycheck and senior release with my friends on B days is a reality I’m reluctant to face.
Our next culprit, your parents’ greatest aspiration for us all – college.
College is to pursue higher education, grow and strive as adults, and to prosper in society. College means leaving home, hugging your family goodbye as you continue to create memories for four years.
But the costs.
Senior year, our college fees include orientation cost, application cost, dorm supplies, and housing deposits.
University is exciting, as synonymous as it is with stress. High school counselors breathe down your neck as your FAFSA remains uncompleted, your rejection from colleges piles before your eyes, and when asked about the future; you fall silent.
Outside of college, graduation carries a heavy emotional and physical price. Abandoning the hallways that held the school fights, quick hallways hugs, and guy drama. Graduation is a final goodbye to every person you never knew existed, every crush a last final look, and every friend a tear-filled goodbye.
The graduation dress or suits, the invites, the cap and gown, the transportation to get there are expensive. More fees to hang on the tassel, more money woven into the fabric of your dress, and more costs into every graduation party invite.
As we are given our diplomas, shake the principal’s hand, we go home to an empty wallet, but a phone filled with memories we will remember in 10 years.
As seniors transition into a new stage of life, adulting becomes a weight on our shoulders, and mom’s advice wasn’t enough to prepare us for our new reality; we are on our own.
My advice is as follows: stay off Doordash, save your money, hug your friends, save your money again, take a picture of every moment, and truly live this last year because it will never be this easy again.
