When we first encountered them on our first day of high school, we immediately understood that they are the top dogs. No one is as cool as them. They run the school, they start the trends and they don’t care about anything. Who are they? What is their next move? What will get in their way? Seniors: there’s no means of stopping them.

Other than being really tall, obnoxious, annoying and intimidating, seniors are actually good people. Shocker right?! Sure, they make fun of you and ignore you. If you haven’t had a senior yell, “Freshman suck!” to you, even if you were a sophomore, you haven’t fully experienced the love they give. But in all honesty, seniors help in ways we don’t often think about. In less than a month, our seniors will be leaving us, and it’ll soon be time to say goodbye.

I’ve met a lot of seniors this year, and they have helped me immensely during my junior year. I’ve met them through clubs, classes and even through things like Paranoia*. You don’t have to go to Kairos to find your “family,” they’re already out there you just have to find them. There are many reasons why I think seniors are pretty cool people, and here are a few of them.

Seniors give amazing advice. Why? Because they went through the same thing you’re going through right now. Your parents don’t remember anything from high school, and how is the dean going to help if you need to know the best times to ditch class? When I got a B+ on a math test, I had no idea what to do. I was broken emotionally and physically. I just wanted to hide in a local supermarket and become a banana. But because of some amazing seniors I knew, they reminded me that there’s more to life than just school. How amazing is that???

Another reason is that seniors are the nicest people. Yes, I said it. Sure, there are some kids that might seem like jerks on the outside, but on the inside, there’s a bit of good in them.

Freshmen are too busy being shy. Sophomores are too busy antagonizing the freshman. They’re at the stage where they think they know everything about the school, but in reality they really don’t. Juniors say they are too busy with their own “problems” like with ACT and college, so they get super worked up about little things, but they’re just really lazy.

And then there are the seniors. Having it be their last year, they really want to make up for all their mistakes in the past. It’s their last way of leaving their mark and making a difference at South.

At the end of the day, we’re all going to be seniors at some point. Obviously we want the best for others, and we want to make a difference in everyone’s life, whether you teach someone a valuable lesson, promote a club or give strategies on the best ways of sleeping without getting caught.

For example, in freshman year, a senior taught me the technique of “the prayer.” It’s when you’re feeling pretty tired in class and need some rest, you fold your hands in prayer and you put your head down. This gives you five minutes max, but if your teacher starts to get suspicious, he or she might ask you to wake up, but by that time, you’re awake and you say, “Amen” to finish off your prayer.

So as we go on, we remember, all the times we had together. For underclassmen, seniors are definitely intimidating, and there’s a chance that you haven’t interacted with any. So I urge you to talk to one of them, and I promise you it will be worth it. I recommend doing the ‘Running Man’ if you’re too scared to talk because seniors love trendy dances.

And for seniors, go talk to an underclassman. You guys have like two weeks before you leave, no pressure. So from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say: thank you.

*Read “A day in the life of a paranoier” from Issue 6 to learn more about Paranoia.