Last week, kindergarteners donned their backpack while area seniors began contemplating the journies that will end in May with a cap and gown.
When seniors from W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller reflected on their days of learning the alphabet to now, they had some interesting reflections.
At WSN, seniors Alyssa English, Matthew Brown, Malcolm Hawthorne and Jasmine Carter, all 17, see themselves taking different career paths from what they wanted to be in kindergarten.
“I plan on going to Troy University and enrolling in the nursing program,” English said. “In kindergarten, I wanted to be a graphic designer.”
English said recent battles with her health are one reason she thinks she has changed as a person and changed her thoughts on her career.
“It has made me want to help other people around the world in the things they face in their health,” she said.
As for her expectations of being a senior, English said it is not what she expected it to be.
Brown said he wanted to be racecar driver but that changed.
“I plan to go to UAB and become a surgeon,” he said.
Hawthorne, a multi-sport athlete at WSN, said a professional athlete was his choice of a profession when he was in kindergarten.
“I have not decided on what college yet I want to attend, but I want to play baseball and football at that college,” he said as a senior. “I now want to be a physical therapist.”
Hawthorne said now that he is a senior, reality is starting to set in.
“Being a senior is what I expected somewhat, then in a way it is different,” Hawthorne said. “You never expected to be graduating high school. You always thought you would always be in school. When you were younger you were always wanting it to be over. Now that it is here, it is like, ‘Wow, it is here.’ I am about to have to be a grownup.”
At TRM, seniors Shayn Bradley, Markail Mitchell, Tamerick Jenkins, Amelia Peach, Troy Hart and Morgan Manning have seen their career choices take a change.
Bradley said when she was in kindergarten, she wanted to be a chef.
“I really don’t like to cook anymore now,” Bradley said. “I plan to go and major in anesthesiology and minor in music therapy.”
Mitchell said he first wanted to be a police officer, but now plans to study physical therapy.
Jenkins, who wanted to be a dentist, is now expanding his search.
“I want to be a nurse and go to South Alabama,” he said.
Peach, who plans to major in engineering at the University of Alabama, said she didn’t know what she wanted to be then and the same applies now.
“I always thought I would figure it out when I got older. Now I am a senior in high school and I still don’t have it figured out. You never really figure things out really.”
Hart plans to attend Auburn and go into pre-law followed by law school somewhere.
“In kindergarten I wanted to be a school bus driver,” he said. “My granddad always drove the baseball team on a school bus and I always thought that was the coolest thing ever. So that is what I wanted to be.”
Hart said being a senior is surreal feeling now.
“I don’t feel any different, but it is weird knowing this is my last year and my last year I will be at home with my mom and my brother,” he said.
Manning plans to go to the University of Alabama and then go into the law program. “In kindergarten I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “Now that I am a senior I have definitely got more mature and I see things differently. I have changed my career path of the medical field into law.”
Manning said he expectations of being a senior are kind of what she expected because she had a brother that was a senior last year.
“I always thought your senior year was when you will make the big decisions and I have seen that right off the bat,” she said. “There are lots of big decisions that have to be made, but I am excited about it.”