With January comes the annual and oftentimes stress inducing pick of classes for next year’s schedule.

While some students, especially incoming seniors, want to take a wide array of Art or Physical Education courses, other students may choose to take slightly more challenging classes, such as Advanced Placement (AP) or weighted-grade classes. I am one of those students.

This year, as a senior, I took four weighted-grade classes, three of which are AP. While I have been successful in my classes thus far, I have been excessively stressed.

Between my rigorous schedule, college applications, sports, clubs, last minute standardized testing and work, I have been so busy, as have many of my peers.

I went into senior year, like many of my friends, thinking I needed to make my course selection more difficult than last year.

I knew I would be able to handle the workload, but I wish that I had been warned that senior year is a lot different from every other school year. Senior year involves, for most, planning for the years to come after high school. This often includes college applications, and unless someone knows exactly where he or she wants to go, he or she usually applies to multiple schools.

For me, the first semester of senior year comprised of daily practice for my sport, an hour or two of nightly homework and filling out applications every weekend until my deadlines passed. Mixing in other clubs, family obligations, a social life and work made me even busier.

I don’t regret choosing the workload that I did (especially considering the opportunity to earn college credit in all AP and several other courses), but it is important to consider that the last year of high school involves a lot of obligations outside of school. I would have benefited from knowing that college applications, in particular, are a lot more tedious than they may appear.

While every student is different, it is important to let yourself have fun during your last year of childhood. Take the interesting class you were considering for junior year. Challenge yourself, but limit yourself. Senior year flies by; don’t waste it cramming for tests.