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June 4, 2008
The next step
By Shere-khan Smoot
South Charleston High School

Well, the time has come to wish our seniors well and send them out into the world. The first stop for many is college, then out into the general workforce.

Many of us will be sad to see our senior friends go, but how do they feel about making this move?

Abby Thornton, a Capital High School senior who is going to West Virginia University, is concerned about the move.

"Being set in such a different environment, compared to what I am accustomed, I am afraid that I will not be able to be as successful as I was in high school," she said.

Another student who shares Thornton's concern is Elise Shen - but she's no senior. This George Washington senior won't be heading off to college for another three years, but she is heading to a much bigger school in a much bigger city: Houston.

 Shen says her new school has three floors, multiple portables and student body of 3,500. She is afraid of having to make new friends and leaving those she has made here in Charleston.

South Charleston senior Alex Greene, who will be attending Marshall University in the fall, is also worried about leaving her friends in Charleston. She says she is not that worried about college coursework thanks to South Charleston's International Baccalaureate program.

Other seniors, though, do have academic concerns.

Capital senior Megan Joseph, who will attend the University of Charleston, says she is afraid of the number of research papers she will have to do in college. Charleston Catholic senior Sarah Saldanha, who's heading to WVU, says she is worried about the exams she will face.

West Virginia Stage University-bound Jessica Riffle, a South Charleston senior, says she is afraid of failing after the first semester at college more than anything.

Like Greene, Thornton feels she is prepared for the amount of work she will face in college, so she is not particularly concerned about that. What does concern her, though, is the idea that while in college, she'll have to make decisions that will affect the rest of her life.

Jack Gang, a senior at George Washington High School, is not concerned about the amount of work he'll face in college, either. Instead, he fears losing his individuality in the overwhelming number of students he'll be amongst.

While he has not chosen his school just yet, Gang says that he is looking forward to meeting people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

So even though our senior friends are headed off to schools near and far, many of them seem confident about what lies ahead for them. And if they ever get too worried about anything, they just need to remember that all of their underclassmen friends are still there for them.

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