Season 1 – Freshman Year 

It’s just the beginning. We don’t know which characters are going to appear across our silver screens. We don’t know what plot line is going to occur. We don’t know the many bumps and curves and plot twists that are in store for us. We are naive, we are innocent, and we are in the dark. 

There is a whole road laid out before us, but we are unable to see where that road will take us. 

It is a season of introductions—new characters and new stories. 

For us young freshmen, we are being introduced to new friends and new people while we adjust to the chaos of high school.

It is the year of firsts. The first Homecoming lip sync, the first football game in the student section, and the first real high school dance. The first honors class, the first senior stair block, and the first Ranger Challenge. 

We face these firsts head-on while enveloping ourselves in all that the first season has to offer. We spend the season finding what brings us joy and what doesn’t. We spend this season realizing that we are going to have to put effort in. We spend this season meeting the characters that will soon become our favorites.

Season 2 – Sophomore Year 

The first season provided a foundation for us to continue off of. This season the plotline deepens, and we grow more attached to the characters.

Not only do we see more interaction with other characters, but there is also more internal reflection as well. 

We’ve recently turned sixteen, and we think we’re so cool just because we are not in the very back of the student section anymore. Also, we can drive; we never thought this day would come. 

There are still some firsts for us this year as our plotline thickens. Our first AP class, our first AP exam, and our first car. Our first drive in the snowy weather, our first time chanting “go home freshmen,” and our first time really having to apply ourselves in school. We are branching out, but there are still a lot of things we are experiencing for the first time. 

Season 3 – Junior Year 

Plot twist. The characters reveal something about themselves that you never saw coming. A new set of characters is introduced. 

As third-year students now, we are pretty seasoned when it comes to managing high school homework and a social life. Or so we thought. 

This year sees us interacting more as a class as we want to beat the seniors at the Ranger Challenges. We also start to think more about our individual futures. We realize that this is the last year of grades that colleges are going to see next fall. We all sit in rows and take a week worth of tests ranging from MSTEP, ACTWorkKeys, and the most important: the SAT.  

The stress of college starts bearing down on us as we trudge our way through multiple AP classes, AP exams, cat dissections, and more. 

By the end of the year, we are wishing that we could be the ones walking across the stage in caps and gowns. 

By the end of this season, we feel as if we have seen all of the stories that can be told. We feel as if the show cannot go on. 

Season 4 – Senior Year 

But it does. The show does go on. And it is even better than the last season. The characters are developing in new ways that you never saw possible, and you are left thinking that it is the best season that you’ve seen so far. However, it has been announced that the show will not be coming back next season.

This makes it the bittersweet year. The goodbye year. The year of lasts.

Now we are standing at the rail for the football games, dancing in our last lip-sync, and attending our last few high school dances. 

We are the leaders of the sports teams that we looked up to when we were freshman. We are participating in our final season, writing our final stories, and filming our final videos. We are having a blast while the ominous, emotional cloud looms above, reminding us that this is the last year. 

But we are also looking forward to what comes next.

We are applying to colleges, we are thinking about our careers, and we are planning our futures. 

Season four marks the goodbyes of our favorite characters but also looks at what comes next for them. That core group that has stuck with us through the ups and downs of the four seasons, and even before, is about to be broken up. Everyone is going to go their separate ways. 

There may be some tears shed when that final episode dances across the screen. These are not only tears of sadness, but also tears of joy and excitement for what is to come.

Bittersweet. 

There really isn’t a better word for season four. 

Seniors.

This is season four.