By: Britten Glupker

May 18, 2020 will be a day of lasts and a day to remember for the high school seniors of GHS.  This is the day of the Senior Assembly, Graduation, AND the Senior All Night party, not to mention the Senior Walk Through that seniors do at all seven of the elementary schools in the district, these events have never occurred on the same day in the past. 

Here’s a quick glance into what the senior’s schedule will look like on that day: The Senior Assembly usually starts at 8:45, to graduation practice and the elementary school walkthrough in the afternoon, to the graduation ceremony, followed by the Senior All Night Party. This means that most of the seniors could basically be awake for 24 hours, and that’s a crazy long day. 

It will definitely be an emotionally draining day for all of the students because it will be their last day spent together. Ayden Rycenga, current senior at GHS says, “It will be hard to handle all of the emotions in one day, since it’s the end of an era, but these activities are also something that every group of seniors tend to look forward to each year after they start to reach that senioritis stage of the year.” Santiago Saldivar, current senior at Grandville and treasurer of Senior Executive Board also expresses how it will be tiring to have all of these events on the same day, but “It’ll be good to get it done in one go.” 

There has been some talk throughout the senior class on why two of the biggest and main events the seniors look forward to are on the same day this year. The Senior Assembly is in the morning at school located in the big gym, where the seniors walk through the school as a student one last time, and as Saldivar says “It’s a time for other students in grades below to bond with the seniors one last time,” while of course graduation is later that evening, at Resurrection Life Church. This is where graduation has always been held for years, because it’s a large enough venue to hold the thousands that attend. Ms. Wiest, Senior Executive Board Advisor, says “The senior assembly day depends on when the last day for the seniors is,” meaning it changes from year to year, which explains why it’s on May 18 of this upcoming year.

 As for why the assembly and graduation are on the same day, Mr. Lancto, principal of GHS explains that when scheduling for graduation, “The only dates that were available at Resurrection Life were either Monday, May 18th, or the day before the last day of school for all students in Grandville.” This, obviously, would have been a long time to wait to graduate after the seniors final day of school. Lancto looked into other locations for Graduation, but there wasn’t enough space to hold everyone, because Grandville gives ten tickets to each student graduating and their families. The yearly schedule for GHS always works around the senior class each year, which makes it difficult to make any changes, especially for graduation activities. Even though it will be a lot for the seniors to handle all of these lasts on the same day, it will always be a day to remember.