Knightly News

Picture it. The year was 1999. I began my last semester of high school. In the fall semester, I filled out and sent off only TWO college applications (much to the chagrin of my college counselor). I received word back from both by January. After being admitted to both, one offered me $300 a semester for books. The other, my eventual undergrad alma mater -- Centenary College of Louisiana -- miraculously offered me a full scholarship covering tuition, room, and board. After doing some cost-benefit analysis, even I realized that fully free was better than a $300 coupon.

Indeed, life was looking pretty good for a young William Ryan Pritchard. After over a decade in school, I had made it. College for free! My intelligence and above average work ethic had been handsomely rewarded far better than I deserved. Mission accomplished! Clearly, I deserved to coast, right? Surely, I could allow the dreaded Senioritis to envelop me in its warm, lazy, hedonistic cocoon. 

Wrong. 

As it turned out, my college scholarship was contingent on keeping a 3.5 GPA throughout high school. Going into that spring semester of senior year, I hovered at something like a 3.52. If I had attended high school nearly anywhere else in America, keeping the 3.5 would have been a cakewalk. I didn’t attend just any high school, though. I spent my junior and senior campaigns at Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, one of the most rigorous public high schools in the United States. Every quiz mattered if I were going to keep that college scholarship. Every assignment? Mattered. Every paper? Mattered.

In the end, I was forced to stay on my toes throughout the whole final semester of high school to set myself up for a more successful life. In the end, I was grateful that I did not have the option of coasting.  Because I never had the luxury of downshifting from fifth gear to second (… or first… or neutral), I kept working as if the coming transition to college was not such a big deal that it required me to take a really lame four month vacation where I continued to show up to school but existed as an apathetic zombie. 

Just to make sure that I wasn’t making this connection too quickly, I reached out to a couple of my previous Episcopal students who are currently in their Freshman year at large state universities. When I asked those Episcopal alums about the toughest part about the transition to college, most echoed the same sentiments. Going from a school like Episcopal where all teachers, administrators, and college counselors knew your name to a large university with large blocks of time between classes where no one checks in on you was tough. One student claimed, “Everyone warns you about academics, too much partying, and living away from home, but nobody really ever talks about how having such an inconsistent schedule can pose a problem when beginning college.” This student did not fall prey to senioritis in the final year at Episcopal, but wondered in our conversation how someone could let off the gas in high school and still handle the transition to a place like LSU, Texas A&M, or University of Alabama seamlessly. “I absolutely think it would be harder,” she said. “It takes a great deal of self control and time management to be able to negotiate a schedule like I had with ease.” 

So, as seniors round the bend with graduation and college in sight, I have some suggestions about how and why to combat senioritis:
 

• Cultivate grit now; it will save you a lot of drama later. Life beyond high school will have moments when you are required to do things you’re not really in the mood to do. Sometimes those moments last for months at a time. This final semester is good practice. 
• Integrity matters and pays dividends. If you establish good habits of putting forth strong (or at least decent) effort in all endeavors, it becomes a habit that people notice. The kinds of people who consistently show up and give effort usually are the first ones to get promotions, raises, new clients by word of mouth, the cool internship, the great letters of recommendation to law school/med school/grad school.
• Look for something interesting or a positive takeaway in every task, class, assignment, or job you encounter. This is a lesson not only for your senior year of high school, but for life in general. Doing so keeps you curious and engaged day after day, week after week, and year after year. It keeps you from resting on your laurels and becoming bored and stagnant in life. 

Seniors, stop thinking about life as having a finish line. You’re never actually finished. The dynamic, interesting, and successful people never reach the finish line. At least none of the ones I’ve worked with or encountered in my relatively short life. They always keep one eye on the present and one eye looking for the next adventure. Read any biography of a person you admire who has had long-term success in business, athletics, politics, or any other pursuit. Nearly all of them talk in terms of never settling but also sticking to it. 

Dr. Billy Pritchard

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2024-2025 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.