If you’re a senior, even if you’re in regular level classes, you may have noticed that the difficulty of your classes is majorly increasing this year. No, your teachers aren’t all conspiring against you, even though it may feel that way.

Listen, I’ve heard it before: “Senior year is supposed to be the best year of high school!” It will be, hopefully, for reasons I’ll come back to. “Senior year is supposed to be the EASIEST year of high school!” It isn’t, actually, at least from what I’ve gleaned over the past three months.

Some of us are almost adults. Some of us ARE adults, at least legally. Did you really think that the curriculum was just going to drop dead going into senior year?

Especially when you consider the issue of getting in college applications, you have to be able to get your priorities straight.

I’ll admit that I have had some issues with that; I spent a whole Saturday a while back just working on college applications. Sure, I fell a bit behind on other work because of it, but I felt so much better because I got them done.

Now that college app season is pretty much wrapped up, there’s no real excuses for avoiding the work that you need to do. As much as we all like hanging out with our friends, let’s face it: it can wait! Your friends will still be there when you’re done with your work.

I know we get too much work sometimes. I’ve had my fair share of nights where I’m drowning in work. Trust me. If you’re not willing to at least take some time to try to do the work, then you’re forfeiting your right to complain, doubly so if you’re not doing the work in class.

You need to do the work to be successful; it’s going to be like that for the rest of our lives into college and beyond. It’s that simple.

I also know that we have sports and other activities, and sometimes we get home too late to get much of anything done. I’m in the same boat as a lot of you there.

You have to consider your priorities. How much is too much? If you have too much going on, then this is your reality check. Think about what you’re already doing, and then figure out how you can squeeze the work in, even if it means getting rid of something. If you want to add on something more, then take a step back first and ask yourself “Do I have the time for that?” before you go for it. Yes, activities are great, but they’re not the main reason we go to school.

Before you try to lynch me, I don’t advocate the senior class ripping their hearts out to become soulless robots completely devoid of emotion. There are ways to do well in school without the work becoming your life.

Case in point: that thing called sleep. Even when there’s lots of work to get done, there comes a point where you need to just put down the textbook and go to bed. Work is important, but sleep is important too. What difference does the work you do make if you’re basically a zombie during the school day?

All that said, you also shouldn’t go to the opposite end of the spectrum and become a permanent party animal. Balance is the key, more than it’s ever been up to this point. If you start putting in effort now to get your priorities straightened out, you’ll be that much better off in whatever path you’re pursuing down the line, whether it’s college, the armed forces, or something else.

You’re all good people with good intentions; consider this as a bit of tough love. I can’t tell you what to do or not do. These are all mere suggestions as far as I’m concerned.

Senior year is such a great year because it is what you want it to be. It’s one more year with people you’ve known since as far back as preschool. It’s one more chance to prove yourself!

If you want to make this year about hanging out with your friends, I’m not going to stop you. I may be shaking my head in the background, but I won’t stop you. Just make sure you know what you’re doing.