Where are they going?: Alena Burris

High school is almost over for the seniors of MHS. The days go slow, but the years go fast, as they say, and this certainly feels like the case for many graduating seniors. Looking back, high school has flown by—and now, the time has come to decide where to begin life after graduation.

Senior Alena Burris is nervous but excited to attend the nursing program at the University of Northern Colorado. “I really like helping people, and I feel like I’ve always been good at that, so I may as well make a career out of it.” Burris says that she doesn’t have a solid plan for where to take her nursing career after college (she’s unsure whether she’ll be a traveling nurse or stick around one place), but she told me she’ll “figure it out when [she] gets there.”

Art has been a big part of her high school career as she has been in AP studio art for three years and had pieces in the district art show all four years. She was able to knock out a fair number of her college prerequisite classes with high school AP classes, so she plans to switch all of those classes out for art classes at UNC. “I wanted to do art, but you can’t have a career in art, but you can have a career in nursing…” Since nursing is such a focused major, she can’t really minor or double major in anything else, so Burris plans to just do art on the side in college.

Making the change from high school to college or the workforce can definitely be nerve-racking. For Burris, she’s nervous when she really considers the impending change but excited when she doesn’t really think about specifics. Luckily for her, there are lots of exciting things coming up to focus on. “I’m looking forward to moving out of my house,” she remarked. “I’m looking forward to meeting new people and having the new freedoms of living on my own.”

When asked about her favorite high school memory, Burris said it would probably have to be “prom, which is really stereotypical, I know, but I had so much fun.”