Between college visits, ACTs and scholarships, it’s easy to get caught up in the plethora of activities perfect for a college application.

As the school year begins, seniors strive to accomplish what last year’s seniors did before them: find perfect balance between GPA and YOLO.

As seniors stress about de-stressing, StuCo organizes seniors-only events to ensure the class of 2025 can let loose and enjoy their last year at EHS.

StuCo President Lucy Schapman explained how senior traditions create opportunity for seniors to go have fun with their friends and not worry about working

“We’re seniors. I don’t have to be there any earlier,” she said. “[Seniors] get to be ‘off duty’ [for] Senior Sunrise.”

Senior Laura Gusewelle explained that senior traditions give her motivation to be more involved at school and show pride for her graduating class.

“I want to go to a bunch of games, and I want to be really involved,” she said. “I want to make sure I still have time for having fun.”

Gusewelle feels events like Senior Sunrise and Senior Sunset give her an opportunity to spend more time with her friends during her last year at EHS.

“The sun rises as the year starts and the sun sets as the year comes to an end,” she said. “I have one more year left with my friends [and] I’m going to miss them.”

StuCo-sanctioned events are not the only senior traditions students look forward to going into their final year.

About 38% of surveyed seniors said they are included in an extracurricular that practices its own senior traditions. Some of these activities include Band, Field Hockey and Drama Club.

Theo Seaman, a member of the Color Guard team, said there are a few Guard traditions he anticipates.

“[I am] looking forward to the parades, specifically seniors getting to be in front of the Color Guard lines during the parades,” he said.

Gusewelle is excited to lead pre-show games for the elementary students when they attend the winter show this December.

“The [seniors] get to sit on top of the stage and run all the games for the winter show and I’m so excited,” Gusewelle said.

Schapman explained StuCo looks to senior events in the past to plan for the current year, but some schoolwide traditions are being thrown out.

Many students look forward to Homecoming week and its events. Some events of the much-anticipated week are theme days, dodgeball and the Homecoming football game, but when asked about the bonfire, Schapman cleared the air.

“It’s not going to happen,” she said. “We’ll have the parade, we’ll have dodgeball, we’ll have volleyball and soccer and Friday night will be the football game.”

This news hit a few seniors particularly hard because many looked forward to attending the bonfire as they had in the past.

Gusewelle was not happy about the cancellation of the bonfire on top of the already shortened week.

“The school spirit feels minimized,” she said.

Nevertheless, these traditions are important to seniors for various personal reasons.

“It’s important to keep senior traditions alive because [traditions] keep seniors genuinely enjoying their school year,” Seaman said.

Schapman agrees with Seaman and said that StuCo wants to keep these traditions lively and something the future seniors look forward to.

“Senior year is stressful,” Schapman said. “It’s important to take your mind off of everything and spend your last year with your friends.”