The school year is finally winding down. It has been a long run, but students are beginning to slack off more than ever, and the teachers are beginning to care less and less. It is the typical quintessence of the fourth quarter. The days are longer and warmer, and many are doing activities outside. The spring has found its way through the crack in the winter ice and has come out in full force.

With these happenings, many people can’t focus on schoolwork. It just seems unimportant and not relevant. Many are only concentrating on the summer that is almost upon us. Along with the break in the weather, there comes the reality that many Elder students live: summer vacation season has nearly arrived.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Days Inn Oceanfront Hotel reigns supreme on the PCB coast

This year, like many others, a senior trip is in store for many of the seniors (at least those that are allowed to go). At some other schools, there are organized senior trips. In one case, Taylor High School took my cousin and his classmates to Australia and New Zealand a few years ago. However, at Elder, and many other private schools, there is no organized trip that all the seniors take.

In previous years, many private school students have gone to Panama City Beach for their senior trip. Similar to years past, the destination for the seniors is PCB. This has become the go to spot for seniors taking their senior trip and I have heard from seniors in the past that the beach is an extremely good time. The most common place to stay in Panama is the classic Days Inn Ocean Front Hotel.

A source, who asked to remain anonymous, who attended senior trip last year, told me, “The trip was no doubt one of the best experiences of my life,” he said. “The venue we were at was very accommodating and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going down this year. A little advice I would give is try to keep your room clean because at the end of the week it gets kind of gross.”

Panama City is a go to vacation for seniors like me. With the waterfront, attractions, and legendary places to hangout, such as the Banana Peel, the anticipation just cannot be contained.

Brian Smedley is another senior who will be making the trip all of the way down to the Florida panhandle at the very beginning of the summer. He told me that he will be taking a video camera and taping everything that happens down there and then making it into a video for all that attend. I imagine that there will be plenty scenes of the group playing good old fashioned board games and building sand castles at the beach. If you are interested in pricing, contact Brian on twitter.

As a huge fan of vacations, Matthew Singler naturally wants to take the excursion as well.

He said, “Whenever I get the chance to take a small break from the day-to-day action, you know I’m down. I look forward to capping off a great four years of high school with this trip.”

Since we all know that many teachers LOVE their jobs, they might not want to admit that summer is coming soon and the school year will be over. However, it is a fact that the 2016 senior trip is almost upon us.