By JESSICA FRANCIS,  freshman

Prom is over, finals are just around the corner, and another year in the history of JP Stevens has come to an end. Most of us will save our tears at the conclusion of this school year since we have more experiences in store for us in our upcoming years. Upon our return, we will be one step closer to the end of high school and the beginning of life outside its walls. However, this is not the case for you seniors.

You, Class of 2012, will soon be walking across that stage, flashing those excited yet melancholy smiles at the cameras before officially becoming JP alumni. Diploma in hand, you will shed tears of joy along with tears of sadness. You’ve made it through twelve years of countless all-nighters, lectures, exams, and friendship dramas to find a vast horizon of opportunities awaiting you in the real world. You will undoubtedly miss your high school years, but college is already waiting.

Numerous articles have chronicled the last days of graduating seniors, but these have thoroughly neglected to examine the situation from the viewpoint of us, those who remain. Even this newspaper contains numerous recollections of outgoing seniors, but few, if any, goodbyes from the rest of us. In complete honesty, we will thoroughly regret your parting; your class has embodied the best of Stevens, from the fine arts to sports to academics to just plain swag.

Seniors every year leave their mark here, engraving lasting legacies within the school’s walls. From the top of the pyramid, you have actively shaped our high school experiences by acting as role models. In your class, there are those legendary students who everyone knows, that everyone looks up to, and that everyone wants to be like, who are always there to lend a helping hand and be a friend to an underclassman. Your influence, no matter what form it took on, has made the school what it is right now. It has defined the image of an ideal student, and we aspire to live up to the standards you’ve set. (Unfortunately for us, they’re pretty high.)

You have truly cared about our school community in every way, worked to build up the school’s reputation and performance, made lasting impressions that influenced underclassmen, and established permanent friendships with those that have looked up to you. Freshman Nidhi Patel says, “A lot of my friends will be leaving this year, and I can’t imagine what next year will be like without them.” I remember nervously stepping into my Computer Science class for the first time in September. I was hoping to  encounter fellow eager-to-learn freshmen;  instead, I found myself rather startled to find  a room full of tall, menacing, and grumpy-looking seniors. I quietly sat down, afraid of being noticed. Soon, they began talking to each other; before I knew it, they were talking to me. Terrified, I responded in one-word answers, but I eventually came to realize that these seemingly hostile upperclassmen were actually nice! Over the course of the year, I befriended these scary seniors. Just the other day, a former APUSH student went over Roosevelt’s presidency for me right before my test, helping me to score well. I’ve had similar experiences with seniors in several clubs and other activities I’ve joined, too. They’ve helped me so much. I’ve always felt welcome rather than intimidated. For that, I’m extremely grateful.

Even though we underclassmen aren’t the ones collecting diplomas yet, it is still a bittersweet moment for us; our school will not be the same without you seniors. Our lives will forever be changed after all the treasured moments we’ve spent together. A wise man once said, “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.”  So let it be with JP Stevens and the Class of 2012. We will surely miss you.