Colorful flags with popular colleges such as Stanford and UT-Austin line the wall in the Coppell High School commons as seniors are seated in the front tables during lunch.

In Texas, today is the day seniors make one of the most important decisions of their lives – which college they plan to attend.

“It’s an important day across Texas and throughout high school to celebrate students making the choice to have some time to post secondary education,” CHS counselor Jayla Maehs said. “We just want to make sure to recognize their hardwork and dedication and we wanted to join a Texas movement to dedicate that.”

Throughout the lunches, the counselors held raffle games and gave out gift cards to popular places such as the movie theater.

In addition to raffles, they had a photobooth with props that represented graduation and being a Coppell Cowboy with props such as graduation gowns and horses.

“It’s a good event just to see where everyone is going, just to step back and look at the decision that we took four years to back,” senior Janane Tan said. “It’s a sigh of relief because now you know where you’re going and you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

With prom only a couple of weeks ago and graduation inching closer, the end of high school is right around the corner for seniors and today just makes it that much more real.

“It sets the stone for the first step in life,” senior Grace Kompany said. “It’s the first major decision you will ever make and it’s the first real choice that can have either consequences or huge benefits.”

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