Senioritis is on the rise at Holt High School

Jacob Mc Millen STAFF WRITER

Senior year. The final lap.

Don’t run out of gas too early.

After a pandemic and three years of high school, the last year should be the easiest. However, something lurks around the corner. Senioritis: the illness that, eventually, all students encounter.

Whether that be from friends, teachers, or personal experience, senioritis is lethal to a student’s academic career.

Senioritis isn’t an actual medically diagnosed illness, but rather a feeling of giving up. Being a senior means that there’s only a little bit left to go, and, with the fresh start of college on the horizon, it is easy to give up.

People who have already applied and been accepted into their university may feel less drive to complete work; however, giving up completely can be damaging to one’s future.

Senioritis is something that is really impacting me, and a majority of my peers. I have no desire to do any work, and I have no desire to be here. Waking up at 6:00 in the morning so I can make it to school on time is becoming harder to achieve as the desire to be here goes down. I force myself to do work and keep up with my hobbies, but sometimes ,I wonder why I’m trying at all. If I already know the next step in my life, why can’t I just take it? I want to move on to the next thing, but I can’t, and that is the worst part of senior year.

Teachers are also affected by senioritis. Many teachers say how they notice student effort and quality of work decreasing. I have had teachers who say they dread second semester, just because it is so much harder to teach seniors as the end comes closer. These classes and grades are important, seeing as students will need to maintain a B+ or higher in their classes if they wish to leave in May and avoid second semester exams.

Future college plans can also be affected by lack of work. No matter where someone plans to go after high school, regardless of acceptance or not, all grades are still being monitored.

Of course, places like LCC don’t look into grades the same way that MSU would, but it still matters to a student’s future. A student getting declined from their dream school is the worst possible way to end senior year.

I think that it is alright to lay back a little, because this is the end. However, instead of resenting the rest of the school year, maybe it is worth relishing. After all, this is the seniors’ last year here. I have had my last first day of high school, my last first semester exams, and my last high school homecoming.

While it is a sign of moving on, it is also something that I will look back on and reminisce about. I have so many fond memories that overcome all of the negativity.

Being in the school band and being able to try so many different things has helped me learn so much about myself. The time I have spent here will eventually be part of the stories I will tell people later. Have fun, don’t be too serious.

All in all, high school is awful. However, these four years are something that all students share. All of the seniors at Holt High School have been through the pandemic, the SAT’s, and and preparing for graduation.

Senioritis will come and it will go, there is nothing able to change that. Students who are not going to college still have to beware of their grades. All seniors need a semester math credit, one semester English credit, Economics, and possibly more. These classes may feel like no big deal, but students do need all of their credits in order to graduate on time with the rest of their class.

College isn’t the only route to take after high school. There are plenty of trades out in the world. There is a constant neef for many trades that people don’t see as important. While they still take time and cost money, the time and money costs are significantly less. According to Midwest Techinical Institute, total costs for an average trade school is $5,000-$15,000 while a 4 year university averaged at 9,410 per year. However, this is the end, so let’s knock it out of the park. With less than a semester left, the work is only going to get easier and the end is only getting closer.

Let’s enjoy the last bit of what high school has to offer before taking our next big step into the future.

Managing Editor:

Copy Editors:

Social Media Editor:

Photo Editor:

Staff Writers: Adviser:

Julia Toomey

Grace Laubenthal and Corinne Johnson

Kayla Fogarty

Jada Price-Williams

Abraham Alvarez, Jazmin Anderson, Evie Cook, Taylor Crosslan, Mariahna Hatfield, Jacob Mc Millen, Isaiah Wummel, and Eleanor Westmoreland

Sarah Ashman

Editorial Policy: Ramparts is published by the Journalism class of Holt High School. The newspaper serves the students and staff of Holt High School and as a connection to the Holt-Dimondale community.

The objective of Ramparts is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all Ramparts staff members.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment. Ramparts prints letters to the editor and guest editorials as space allows. Letters must be typed, less than 200 words in length and signed. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. Ramparts will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. Ramparts reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Ramparts staff at (517) 694-2162.

Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspaper Editors/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service.

School provided lunch analysis

Ramparts staff discusses the details of school provided lunches; quality, variety, and more

School provided lunch should be no stranger to any high school student.

Students need nutrients in order to continue learning. Schools recommend a fruit, vegetable, protein, grain, and dairy in order to hit all the core nutrients from the food pyramid. This may take the form of chocolate milk and a chicken sandwich or pizza, a spinach salad, and juice.

The school does not force people to buy the school lunches. While some students choose to eat a school provided lunch, others choose to bring lunch from their home. This gives students more freedom when it comes to what options they have to eat for lunch during the school week.

Regardless of whether a student eats a school lunch or not, it is essential that they are provided.

School lunch at Holt High School typically includes options such as a salad bar, milk, and a main course. This main course may take the form of either one of the two cycling dishes, pizza, or a sandwich of choice. Students are able to pick from a small variety of items.

And if students wish, there is a snack bar that offers stuff not available in the lunch line. The purpose of the snack bar is not to replace a school lunch, but to add to it. This is why items from the snack bar must be purchased separately from the actual lunch.

Offering these options is something that some students look forward to, and is well received around the school.

The amount of variety when it comes to school lunch is something that does occasionally stay stagnant. There is always pizza or a sandwich of some kind, and two other meals to pick from. However, these meals don’t change often.

Some of the options available are more new, while other options have been the same since elementary school. Having the same food repeatedly, year after year, gets old after a while. Students get sick of only being offered the same couple options.

It isn’t expected that a new dish be made available every day, but it would be nice to see the occasional swapping of a dish for something different. Even if only offered rarely, it’s exciting for students to have a new lunch option to try.

The quality of school lunch is another hot topic. It’s always perceived through television that school lunch looks like some sort of unappetizing, gray, meat slop. And while that disgusting extreme isn’t the case at Holt, there definitely are some meals that are better than others.

Some meal quality is pretty good, and others are acceptable, though there are sometimes where the food doesn’t look or taste the best. Every student has a different opinion on the quality of school lunches in general. Some think they’re average and others think they’re awful. Not everything can be a hit, but there are some meals that could be cut from the menu in place of others.

School lunch is appreciated by students. Some students rely on school lunch for a reliable meal supply and school lunches are always available for any student, no matter their financial situation.

Schools offer reduced costs and free lunches for other students who cannot afford to pay for the school lunch regularly. This ensures that all students have access to food every school day.

While school lunches have room for improvement, there are still a large number of students who choose to eat school lunch, and there is still a large enough supply for those students.

Speak Up

Do you think that school lunch has improved in past years?

“I think the quality of school lunch has improved since freshman year.”

Senior Ema Cook

“It hasn’t gotten better; we need to get more food. It feels like the same thing every day.”

Junior Josiah DeMond

“I think they’ve declined. Lunches used to have more options and better supplies. It’s degraded a bit. I like it, but it’s just not as good as it used to be.”

Sophomore Aliison Wieger

“School lunch has not improved, lack of good options. There’s only lettuce and spinach.”

Freshman Gagan Bhandari