By Billie Nagy

It’s been a challenging and fun first semester for this year’s seniors. In addition to all of the college and scholarship applications, SAT retakes, and finals planning, the tedious senior thesis outline was due at the beginning of December.

For most (if not all) seniors, writing this essay is perhaps the most frightening experience of the year. While 15 to 20 pages on three or four books does seem off-putting, the task is meant to be, and ultimately is, quite a rewarding one.

For those of you who have yet to experience this, the process (at least thus far) is not actually half bad! While there was perhaps some last minute reading and theme-picking occurring, writing the beginning outline can actually be considered a satisfying experience.

After months of preparation, including reading the thesis books, meeting with  groups and advisors, and working on developing ideas in-class with Humane Letters teachers, every senior was able to finally complete an outline for the “dreaded” essay. Now that their ideas are at least somewhat clear and a path can be seen through the mist, seniors will have to write the rough draft of the actual paper over winter break, and turn it in sometime around the first or second week of January. This will in turn give Humane Letters teachers and faculty advisors time to read and edit the students’ papers.

After the rough draft has been edited, students make changes and ultimately come up with the final version of their grand argument. Later in the spring, seniors will have the opportunity to defend their paper against their advisors and Humane Letters teacher in a thrilling event known as the “Senior Defense.”

Well, it’s certainly something for which to prepare. But for now, let’s just enjoy our winter break!