Senior students are given the opportunity to paint their spots every year. This tradition allows senior students to leave their mark in a creative and fun way. Each painted space shows a story of each senior, some jokes, some with their friends. Throughout this process, senior students took the time to bring their own visions into life. 

They plan, sketch, and paint with a purpose, often spending hours in the Texas sun with music playing and with friends and family around. It’s not just about the final product, but the memories they make along the way. 

“It was a lot of staying there, very late to the end of the allowed time and maybe a little later some nights painting,” Senior Cormac Edmonds said. “Especially since I had band, so I had to work around that, so it was a lot of late nights, and trying to go on the weekends, but it was a really fun experience to do with my friends.” 

Depending on what was painted before, some seniors struggled to cover up black or dark colored paints. 

“Something that I struggled with was probably the base layer, because the person before me did just a black spot, so trying to get yellow to appear over and over the black and not be super cracky took a lot of paint and a lot of time.” Edmonds said. 

As the first official senior event of the year, students used it as a way to be around their class and kick off their senior year.

“My senior spot is really special to me because it’s one of the very first things you do as a senior.” Said Senior Sarah Dang. “It’s a great way to start off your senior year. I really loved being able to paint and spend hours a day with other seniors.” 

Class of 2026 senior students got to experience a tradition that’s been going on at McNeil for over four years as a meaningful way for the class of 2026 to leave their mark in whatever way they visioned best.