This season is very unique for seniors. There is a lot of stress in the air between waiting to hear from colleges, counting down the days to graduation, and even taking the last set of midterms before beginning the last semester of their high school careers.

To keep the energy and positivity up, senior class representatives have planned events for each month. In October, they had Halloween activities and trick-or-treating. In November, all of the seniors pitched in for a Friendsgiving lunch and made gratitude boxes for senior students and representatives. For December, the senior class had a cookie swap and an ugly Christmas sweater contest.

December events have been planned since the first quarter, but details weren’t released until last week. The event was on Wednesday, December 20^th during the 6th-period Senior Seminar class. Each senior was asked to make, not buy, 3 dozen cookies to swap with others. Ms. Bottini, one of the senior class representatives made three dozen of many cookie types because she “came to eat.” Jokingly, she said she didn’t want to share her cookies with someone if they chose not to bring anything.

The seniors brought their cookies to Ms. Temples’ room on Wednesday morning so that the class officers could set the tables up and organize everything before it came time for the swap. After all of the seniors had arrived in Ms. Temples’ room for 6^th period, each student got a Christmas-themed box and could choose 15 cookies from the table. There were no-bake cookies, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and so much more. Though there were many options, everyone seemed to have their favorites, even if they didn’t want to admit it. Once everyone had gone through the cookie line once, seniors were allowed to grab extras or make boxes for other teachers and administrators. This was a great time to pass out any gifts the students had for their friends because there was a very positive, festive atmosphere to the room.

Throughout the swap, Ms. Harrigan and Ms. Bottini were writing down the names of students who wore their holiday attire and/or ugly Christmas sweaters. Once everyone had finished packing, or eating, their cookies, the sweater contestants lined up and walked down the middle of the classroom like a runway model to show off their outfits. All of the seniors in the room got three votes rather than one since there were so many contestants. The results were close between the top 5, but this year’s ugly Christmas sweater winner was Naiomy Colon-Lopez. In second place was Amari Surles, and third place went to Ruth Maldonado-Torres.

Overall, the final senior event of 2023 was very successful. They can’t wait to see what fun will come up next once the holidays are over and a new semester begins.