Four Years, One Word: Seniors Sum Up Their HS Experience

Seniors share one word that sums up their last year or a word that relates to some factor of their high school experience. Saying what they felt, learned, and experienced.

By: Ariana Lopez and Sophia Rodriguez

If you had to sum up your senior year in just one word, what would it be? For the class of 2025, that word holds more than just meaning, it holds memories, growth, laughter, and lessons.

This story is about the power of a single word, how one word from each senior can capture the heart of their final year of high school. Its a collection of honest, thoughtful, and sometimes surprising reflections that show what this year really meant to them, what it taught them, and how it felt to stand on the edge of something ending and something new beginning.

Each word shared by a senior tells a story of late-night study sessions, unexpected friendships, personal accomplishments, and the quiet moments in between.

These single words reflect a year of finding themselves, saying goodbye, and stepping into what comes next.

Giselle Vicuna, ‘25, says one word that captures how she feels about high school would be “excited and also bittersweet, [because] I’m a little sad to leave my younger friends but I’m excited to graduate and move on to a new chapter in my life.”

Isaiah Carlos, ‘25, says one word that defines his growth during senior year would be “discipline, because this year I could have easily gone off task, and I feel like I had to stay locked in to do different classes.”

Reagan Nottingham, ‘25, says one word to describe a strength she did not know she had this past year was “the courage I had over the years because of the stress I’ve had and determined to overcome it.”

Gregory Volkerts, ‘25, says one word that describes his entire high school experience would be “Random, because it was a lot of this and that. I was at a different high school beforehand, but I have done a lot of stuff for choir and drama. When it comes to that other than it being random I think it was also fun, because it gave me the choice do things that I personally think I wouldn’t be able to do when I was in high school.”

Sophia Ortega, ‘25, says one word to sum up her senior year would be “sweet because I moved schools and it was very different for me and I didn’t really have that many close friends. But I still had a really good experience and Redwood has such a nice group of people that are so school oriented that it made sense.”

Albert Patino, ‘25, sums up what senior year taught him with the word “Patience. A lot of this year has been ups and downs, and I learned that rushing into things tends to make it sloppier and mess it up. So throughout this year and the stuff that’s happened, I’ve learned that being patient has helped me slow down and take my tie on stuff so I can better assess things and correctly do it the first time instead of retrying.”

Kaitlyn Peterson, ‘25, describes her last year of high school as “finishing a puzzle. Things finally started piecing together, like what I wanted to do [and] where I wanted to go, my whole life in general. Even though it was really difficult, it ended up being all worth it.”

Kelan Anderson, ‘25, says one word to describe his accomplishments at Redwood is “fulfilled because I went into high school with a lot of goals I wanted to accomplish, and I feel like I have done everything I’ve wanted to. I had the high school experience that people dream of, and it was an awesome time, and I had a lot of fun that I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Maclayne Gonzalez, ‘25, says one word that she felt best sums up how this school year felt, she said, “Memories. I feel like memories is a good word to describe it. I feel like I’ve created so many memories this year and so many memories to look back on as well, especially as my last time being here.”

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