Summer break usually motivates students of all ages, but for seniors, it’s much more impactful. It’s one of the last summers living under parents’ roof and the last summer as a kid, and some EHS seniors use it to its full advantage and leave Edwardsville for one last senior trip before moving out.

Senior trips are different than regular vacations; they’re usually traveled independently or without the entire family. They have become common among EHS seniors and graduates, and many have different reasons for planning them.

Senior Hannah Griffin thinks of her senior trip to France and England with her dad as a reward for all of her hard work through high school.

“I think a lot of parents like the idea to help (kids) get through high school, like a goal,” said Griffin, who “always took an interest” in London and took French classes in high school.

Senior Mary Webb will also be traveling to Europe, but for different reasons.

“My mom and her sisters have gone to Ireland in the past, and it’s definitely a family tradition to go there,” Webb said. “It’s kind of a last vacation to spend a couple weeks with my mom.”

Webb’s ancestors are from Ireland, and she and her mom are planning to explore the towns where their ancestors were from.

“It’s one of the last times that you’re not completely on your own,” Webb said.

Senior Riley Kloostra will be staying in the states but leaving her parents for her trip. She and fellow senior Gwen DenHouter have planned a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.

“We’re both big Disney fans,” said Kloostra, who admits it took a lot of convincing for their parents to agree. “We started talking about it (in) junior year never really thinking we’d actually be able to go… but we get to.”

The trip will be the first time before college that Kloostra will be staying somewhere without any family members.

“(Seniors have) much more newfound freedom, and it’s a celebration of the beginning of adulthood and the end of high school,” Kloostra said. “In other countries, it’s common to take a gap year and travel in between high school and college, but that’s not the case in the U.S.A., so we take senior trips instead.”

Senior trips are leading many seniors, like Griffin, Webb and Kloostra, all over the globe as they say goodbye to high school, and they’re sure to become a positive and lasting memory.

“I’m very excited to go somewhere totally new and different,” Griffin said, “and I’m sure I’ll remember it forever.”