At the Dunkin’ Donuts in the center of Whitman, four girls in hooded sweatshirts answer questions with an unhurried air probably unique to high school seniors in the midst of February vacation.  Emily Ballard and Jill Alves, both from Whitman, have been friends for as long as they can remember. Liz Sussky and Mary Cannon grew up together in Hanson.  The girls met during their freshmen year of high school and are entirely comfortable with each other.

GOOD FRIENDS: Liz Sussky, Emily Ballard, Jill Alves, and Mary Cannon (front) are all headed off to college, wondering what the future has in store.

Their easy bearing is likely the calm before a new kind of storm.  Their college applications are finished, but they have yet to receive the endless scholarship applications from the Whitman-Hanson guidance office.

“They’re giving us a break,” said Ballard.  “We won’t get that stuff till after vacation.”

With the school year now half-over, seniors are decidedly in-between.  By now, some students know exactly where they’ll be this fall, These students have applied early, received their acceptance letter, and enrolled, sometimes making their final decision as early as December. Ballard falls into this category, having enrolled in the class of 2012 at the University of New Hampshire to study hospitality and hotel management.

Other students are fairly certain of where they’ll be, but the final deposit ensuring their place has yet to be made.  At the time of our interview in February, Jill Alves was fairly certain she’d attend Stonehill College to study biology, but hadn’t made any binding decision yet.

Even more students have yet to receive notification of all their schools’ final decisions.  Liz Sussky, who will study nursing, and Mary Cannon, interested in business management, both find themselves in this situation, having heard from some schools but not others. 

Whether or not they know where they will attend, anxiety abounds.  The decision to attend one particular school can be very challenging, especially after the months or even years of preparation and speculation put into such a choice.  Once that determination is made, the uncertainty shifts from where the student will be, to what college itself will be like.  For these four girls, the prospect of moving from a place where they have known a lot of their classmates their whole lives, and see them every day, to going to a new school with new people is both liberating and nerve-wracking.

“It’s weird that we’re not going to be around the people we’re used to being with all the time,” Ballard said. “But I feel like we’ve been so sheltered here.  We’re ready for something new.”

“It’s like the first experience that’s all on your own,” Sussky explains.

Though clearly ready to move on, their levels of worry concerning their impending separation from each other vary dramatically between the four of them.  While two of them dismissed the issue, the other two admit that they’ve already been thinking about it.

“I’m not stressing about it right now,” Alves said.

“Yeah,” Sussky agreed. “I feel like we’ll keep in touch.”

“Are you guys serious?”  Ballard asked.  “I’m definitely scared. It’s hit me that once summer starts, all this is over.”

Cannon agreed with Ballard.  “I’m hoping to go to school in California, and with that distance, I won’t be able to see them as much.”

Between questions, the girls reminisce about summer jobs and discuss the recent happenings at Whitman-Hanson. Interviewed the day after the Passion Plunge, in which Whitman-Hanson students joined other brave souls in jumping into the frigid waters of Nantasket Beach for charity, the girls recounted the previous day’s events.

“Liz just dove right in,” Cannon said.

“Yeah, and Jill kind of waded in,” Sussky added.  “It was so cold!  But when we got out, Emily and Mary were waiting there with towels.”

They’re looking forward to the start of the next term, when they can kick back a little more and enjoy the warmer weather.  They have a lot of planning to do, with March Madness, a week of activities and dress-up days coming up quickly.

After our meeting, the four girls gathered near their cars in the parking lot, discussing where, exactly, they were each headed next and when they would meet again, still unhurried and unworried, as seventeen year olds on vacation tend to be.

“Senior year is going by so fast for all of us, but before we know it we’re going to be packing for college,” said Ballard. “Although it’s nervous to think about, we’re all ready for the new experience.”