As each year of high school is finished and more credits are completed, students are left with an increasing amount of freedom in how they fill those empty spaces in their schedule. Seniors, like Sawyer Janssen, who have already fulfilled all of their graduation requirements have plenty of time to explore new things or spend even more time on their passions.

“Senior year, we get a lot of freedom with your schedule because I’ve already completed most of my credits, so I have a lot of slots to fill,” Janssen said.

For students like Janssen, this time is utilized to further hone skills they work on outside of class. Students are able to maximize their schedule towards their passions.

“I practice all the time; I had a recital over the summer and I take private lessons and I just work on it as much as I can,” Janssen said.

This is not just for student’s own enjoyment but for many practical reasons as well. For example, Janssen’s decision to take four orchestra classes was motivated by her future goal to work in music education.

“Last year I decided I was gonna go into music education, so I thought with this opportunity to have as many classes in orchestra as I want, I can learn all the instruments ahead of time and put my name out there for colleges,” Janssen said.

Despite how much work it takes to learn four instruments at once over five different classes, Janssen has expressed satisfaction in a schedule like this. Janssen says she does not regret tailoring her schedule around this interest.

“This semester, I’ll only have two core classes and then the rest of them will be orchestra,” Janssen said. “I love it so much. I wish I could have more orchestras because it’s been so fun having a schedule like this.”