The familiar scent of fresh wax on the floors and the buzz of students reuniting after a long summer…the first week of school at North Creek High is as familiar as the bell schedule. However, for the class of 2026, this carries a different meaning. This first day, first week, first everything, is also a “last”.
It’s a sentiment echoing through the hallways: “Awww, this is our last first day of school…” That nostalgia defines the senior experience.
For senior Kavya Anand, this awareness has reshaped her priorities. The nervous energy of earlier years has given way to something calmer. “It is different because it’s my senior year so it feels like nothing’s that serious to me,” she said. “I already want to leave. I don’t want to be here.”
Her focus are elsewhere: college applications rather than her everyday homework. “I care more about the college apps I’m doing outside of class,” she admitted. “So I care more about that than school right now.”
Her schedule reflects that shift too. With graphic design, advanced art, architecture, and orchestra on her schedule, Anand has a year that gives her breathing room. “…I like it. I got the required classes, I got the fun classes,” she said. It’s quite the contrast to her freshman year self. “…when I was a freshman I was so like, on top of it, like ‘schedule this,’ ‘do this,’” she remembers. “…but now, I’m just like ‘I’ll just do that.’ ‘That’s okay.’ My grades are the same. I’m still doing good, but it’s the mindset.”
Senior Makayla Watts thinks this year is not about detachment and more about savoring the end of a long journey. “This first week feels different because it’s my last one, so I’m kind of excited rather than rushing through it,” she explains. “I would say it’s more nostalgic than the rest. Being a senior makes it feel more meaningful. It’s the start of the end in high school. I’m focused on making a few more memories with everyone before we all go on with our lives, going to different states and different schools.”
She feels the contrast most when she looks at underclassmen. “It’s scary to think that I was in that position in a new environment just a couple of years ago,” she said.
Her own senior schedule is tailor-made for her. “I like my class schedule. I get out early, I don’t have any tough classes, and my only serious classes are the ones I need to take as a senior.”
And then there are traditions. One of which is the swapping of one’s old backpack for a “silly” backpack. Watts went for it, even though it wasn’t carefully planned. “It was an extremely last-minute decision, but my friends convinced me to get one,” she says. Anand, on the other hand, stuck with a regular backpack. Her reason? Laziness. “I didn’t because I didn’t want to move all my keychains and my pins,” she admitted. “I’m just too lazy. There’s too many of them to move at this point.”
As the first week of senior year draws to a close, this marks the beginning of the end for the class of 2026, the beginning of a year-long goodbye to not only high school, but also the K-12 standardized school system.
