Senior In Wonderland by Erika

Senior In Wonderland by Erika - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

High school can easily be considered the most stressful time in a young adult’s life. Senior year in particular causes an obscene amount of stress. People, who are trapped between impending adulthood and childhood memories, are forced to make decisions that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Whether they choose to go into the military, go to college, or enter the work force, adolescents have to make their choice before they have even experienced enough to understand possible repercussions. One of the few ways to provide a distraction from the chaotic world of growing up is to enter a place of nonsense and adventure. Before stepping fully into adulthood, every high school senior should read Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in order to escape their world’s and enter another.
While Alice is only a child no older than seven, her journey perfectly reflects that of a high school senior. She begins her journey by choosing to chase a rabbit for no reason other than the fact that she wants to. Every student has some dream they wish to chase. Of course, they have probably grown out of the princess and pirate phase but students have fantasies as well. They dream of flying a plane into battle, owning their own business that sells only handmade dog clothes, or becoming a world-renowned trauma surgeon. As students attempt to go after these dreams, they fall deeper into the rabbit hole, chasing a rabbit they can never catch.
Now that their dreams have been crushed, students must learn how to make practical decisions and must ask themselves, what can I do? Alice asks the same question whenever she realizes she cannot fit through the only door at the bottom of the rabbit hole; thus she begins her misadventure in growing and shrinking. A high school senior could easily identify as this, as they are always being built up just to be torn down. It is as if no matter how hard they try, they never fit the exact requirements. Seniors can also take a note from the white rabbit. Deadlines can be detrimental to a senior who has plans; they seem to always be running out of time. The white rabbit reminds them to keep checking their pocket watch and do their best not to be late.

Once she is through the door to Wonderland, Alice must jump through many odds and ends just to reach where she needs to go. She participates in a Caucus-Race, a game that can never be won, and a meets a slew of strange people. In a Caucus-Race, each of the characters run around the beach in an attempt to get dry and once they get close to that goal a wave from the ocean washes over them. They are forced to start all over again as it is against the rules to walk away from the beach. A senior faces plenty of obstacles, with rules that seem to be an endless cycle of being washed by waves of an ocean. They can spend hours poring over admission essays, applications, and scholarships and end up getting absolutely nowhere; and the worst part is, they do not even know where they are going. This is just as Alice has no idea how to get home; she most certainly cannot go back the way she came. It does not matter which direction she takes because there really is no way out. This is just as a student has no way around their senior year.
While Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a novel typically meant for children, high school students can get much more out of it than simply a fun story. Alice goes through both hardships and triumphs, and she does she learns about who she is as a person. She learns how to be courageous, to have passion, and that however small she may feel, she can overcome anything. These lessons are some that most adults have yet to learn. A high school senior should know that while all may seem lost, and they may not know how to find their way home, they will eventually get there. Even if it means asking for directions from a caterpillar with a hookah.