At Thomas Edison CTE High School every year there is an event called Senior Sunset, where all the seniors gather in the field to watch the sunset together. It is intended to be one of the final senior events for the year before everyone goes off to college. It’s a time when everyone hangs out together and says their goodbyes in one of the last group events of high school.
We wanted to gather the thoughts of the seniors to see how they feel about it and whether or not they are going to go. When going to Senior Sunrise at the beginning of this year the turnout was pretty good, and many kids enjoyed the entire experience.
Now looking at senior sunset compared to sunrise many would expect the same turnout and overall experience, it’s the same event just at different times of the day and at different points in the year. This prediction couldn’t have been any more inaccurate.
Leading up to senior sunset, the majority of the seniors that we interviewed stated that they didn’t have high expectations for this event. Many of their reasons for going were that there weren’t that many senior events left in the year and they just wanted to make the most of whatever was left of their senior year.
“Before going I thought it was going to be boring but at least I knew some of my friends were going too,” senior Kevin Harinarine said. This goes to show that expectations weren’t very high going in. Many people were just going to say that they went.
Shifting forward to the start of the event you can immediately tell that it wasn’t going to be as boring as many people thought. There were a large quantity of snacks and desserts, including smores. There was music playing that helped make the mood lively and festive. With just these handful of things alone, this was enough to shift everyone’s opinion and open their minds up for what’s to come.
The event also included a bunch of activities that the seniors could partake in and enjoy. For example, there was finger painting, sending a message to next year’s freshman, senior portrait, and senior signoff. Nobody expected this event to be so lively and the expectations were blown out of the water.
“There were a few activities such as signing the senior board as well as the senior sign off which I thought were clever ideas. Overall I rate the experience an 8/10,” Daniel Umrou said.
“While I was there I enjoyed it. And when we left it made one of my friends regret not going to more senior activities,” Kevin Harinarine said. To make someone regret not going to any senior activities the event had to have been remarkable.
The afternoon climaxed with the final event which was the balloon farewell. Where each student was given biodegradable blue balloons which were meant to signify a final farewell once we released them up in the air. Although it was very cloudy that day and we weren’t able to see the sunset, this balloon activity made up for that and was very uplifting and unforgettable. At the count of three, we all released our balloons up into the air as we started our high school experience slowly fading away into the sky. Many people got emotional as they came to realize the senior year was almost over and we were finally reaching the end.
“I really enjoyed the senior sunset event and thought it was a good way to send this graduating class off. We enjoyed ourselves but all good things must come to an end,” Matthew Velez said.
It was expected that many students didn’t have high hopes for this event thinking nothing really was going to happen. Fortunately, our intuitive and caring senior staff put in all the effort that they could to make this an enjoyable event and it paid off. Many students appreciated this event and had an extremely enjoyable time.
Although many students waited for a sunset that never came, as during this period, weather conditions prevented students from seeing the sun, one final time. None of our students let the clouds ruin their event and they were still able to create a memorable experience that will stick with them for a lifetime.
