The Start to Their Big Exit

Mrs. Sullivan snaps shots of seniors as they stream into the area behind C Building. It’s the first event of senior weekend, and colorful hula-hoops are scattered on the grass, songs ranging from “Earth, Wind, and Fire” to “Closer” boom from a speaker, and the smell of hotdogs and hamburgers scent the evening air. The DJ calls for the start of a hula-hooping contest, and several seniors take the challenge. They manage one, two, then three hula-hoops before a winner is finally announced and triumphantly claims a prize of Mike-and-Ikes.

Christine Lee, one of the hula-hoop competitors, says, “We’re so excited for tonight! We’ve been waiting for three long years to be seniors, and I can’t believe it has finally come.” Excitement is an evident emotion of all the seniors. The steady hum of voices grows as more and more students arrive, and there’s laughter and shouts as people begin to dance to “Cha Cha Slide.”

The call finally goes out for people to grab food, and a line immediately forms behind the table filled with rows of hot dogs and hamburgers from Foley’s Backstreet Grill, a sea of ketchup and mustard bottles, and boxes of chips. Soon afterwards, the seniors head out to the football field to watch the night’s game. As they climb onto the bleachers and form a mass of black shirts on the left, cheerleader captains Katherine Pineo (12), Emily Fabbiano (12), Ava Hannon (11), and Elena Pacheco (11) prepare the squad for the upcoming game, and the bulldog mascot dances on the track.

Alexandra Boone explains, "We still have a year ahead of us, but it's going to pass by so quickly and I'm just enjoying every moment of it." She smiles and looks ahead at the field. "By the time we know it, our parents will be on these bleachers, and we'll be over there graduating!"