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This American Life

841: My Senior Year

This American Life

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.688.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One kid comes to America as an exchange student and commits herself to the senior year experience.

  • Prologue: We talk to high school seniors in Salt Lake City who are trying to have the perfect year. (5 minutes)
  • Act One: Every year, thousands of teenagers come from all over the world to experience American high school. Last year, thirteen students from Palestine came to the US on a program sponsored by the US State Department. We tell the story of a girl named Majd, from Gaza, and her extraordinary year in America. (50 minutes)

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Transcript

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0:00.0

From W Beasy Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Hannah Joffi Walt sitting in for Ira Glass.

0:07.0

It's a first day of high school, Salt Lake City. A bunch of students are standing around outside in clusters, and the seniors

0:16.8

are wearing little kid backpacks, Ninja Turtles, Hello Kitty, Spider-Man, big 17-18-year-old kids in Winnie the Pooh

0:26.6

backpacks. My colleague Mickey Meek talked to seniors, Estraia and Angie.

0:31.4

So you guys, what is the deal with, what's up with the backpacks why is this a senior thing?

0:36.0

Because like we enter school kindergarten like with kids backpacks you know because we're little kids and then we're like

0:41.3

leaving school with these on as well.

0:44.6

Do you guys have any specific plans you've already made for this year that like you want to

0:48.7

do together because it is your senior year? Actually on Thursday or we're going to go change your classes so we could be like together more.

0:56.0

And like, make sure we have the same lunches and stuff.

0:59.0

You guys are in how many classes together?

1:01.0

Zero.

1:02.0

Yeah. We have none. Which're planning for trying to get the same

1:05.1

class. We're gonna beg our counselor. We're gonna be like we have separation

1:08.2

anxiety like we have to be together. I'm really like Mark because this is like Mark

1:11.9

I'm like Mark please let us be together like we want to enjoy our senior year you know it's our last year together because we're both going different ways.

1:19.0

They are really feeling the last timeness of this year ahead of them. The last year in these

1:24.9

classes, in these halls, in backpacks, the last year of these friendships in this

1:30.0

place with these people. After this, their lives will be different.

1:35.0

All the seniors we talked to had a list of things you have to do senior year.

1:39.0

Stuff they'd seen other kids do before them,

1:41.0

and also all the iconic experiences they'd seen in a million

...

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