The end of the year is near, and although the majority of students will be returning to Santa Barbara High School at the end of the summer, the senior class of 2022 is preparing to embark on the next part of their lives. From planning to jump straight into the workforce, take a gap year abroad, further their education at trade schools, city colleges or 4-year institutions in and out of the state, seniors are finishing up their time at SBHS as the clock ticks towards graduation. Many students feel nostalgic, nervous, and excited when thinking about graduating in the new Peabody Stadium, but each student is still unique in their emotions regarding what comes next.

Senior JT Moorman comments on what he is feeling towards attending Santa Barbara City College in the fall. He says, “[I’m] pretty excited now because I get to, now that highschool is over, I get to focus on newer things, new life experiences. You’re entering a completely new world and I’m excited for what the future holds. [SBCC is]  going to give me a really big opportunity of 2 free years of college where I can figure out what I want to do and where I want to go. It’s going to be a really nice school to go to and figure out what I want to do.”

City college, particularly SBCC for SBHS graduates, is only one of many routes seniors will be taking to reach their academic and career goals. Other graduates may be choosing to attend a 4-year institution right away, either in or out of state.

Senior Orion Norris will be staying local, attending UC Santa Barbara, and says, “I’m super excited to graduate even though I’m not getting too much exposure to other parts of California. I’m super excited to move on past highschool and enter new responsibilities. I’m pumped to stay local, I know I can go surfing, I know all the mountain biking spots and I can hangout with all my friends going to CC.”

Other students, particularly athletes, will be branching beyond our local and even state schools to attend 4-year universities which will allow them to pursue their athletic goals on top of their academic and career goals.

Senior athlete Laila Goodman, attending New York University for their NCAA Division III Track and Field program, comments on her experience with athletic recruiting and committing on top of her academic aspirations to study on the Pre-Law track. She says, “Mostly, it was stressful because people wouldn’t respond back to me, or I wouldn’t be good enough and then it’s not guaranteed. The coach is always trying to find other people so they’re not like 100 percent yes. It depends if you’re the right fit for the team, the school and the program. With technology, it is quite easy to recruit yourself because you just search up how other people have done it in the past and you make connections and I had people around me who were doing similar things; you’re not alone in it.”

She says, “People always ask me, “how are you going to do both?”, but I’ve literally been doing both for all of high school already. I am very excited because the SB community prepared me well and I’m excited because I know I will always be able to come back here.”

As Laila said, seniors will always have a home in SB. Whatever the future holds and wherever they go, the senior class of 2022 is well prepared to tackle the next chapter of their lives.