Editor’s Note: This is the first of a consecutive four-part series featuring one senior from each of the three high schools as well as Eastside and Westside Alternative schools.

Three long years at Olympic High School aren’t exactly enough to get senior Matt Dreaney to wax sentimental.

“I’m ready to be done with the whole process of high school and just the kind of rigidness of it — that’s the frustrating part,” he said. “I’m ready to graduate and move on to college.”

It’s hard to blame the guy for being a little restless, however. Dreaney’s senior year has had him juggling honor society and three advanced placement classes, along with his culminating project and all the other craziness of one’s last year of high school.

“It seems like this year has been a lot more stressful in terms of things going on, but I guess it’s been easier in the sense that it’s been easier to kind of just look at it and say, ‘I’m done with it after this,’” he said. “Lots of times you hear your junior year is the hardest, but my senior year has definitely been my most difficult year.”

Then again, it’s hard to really sympathize with him — he’s headed off to Pitzer College this fall, a place where “fall” doesn’t really exist.

“It’s actually the only school I applied to,” he said.

Pitzer is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium in Southern California and focuses its curriculum on “intercultural education with an emphasis on social responsibility and community service,” according to the college’s Web site.

It’s perhaps a little weird that Dreaney should find himself there.

“A year ago I had never even heard of the college,” he said.

He got to know about Pitzer through a program he participated in last summer at Stanford University. A few of his friends in the program lived near the school and after Dreaney had gone through an interview and seen what Pitzer had to offer, he started to consider the school.

“Pitzer, it has kind of this reputation of a liberal, hippie,

pot-smoking school, so before I went down there I wasn’t really too seriously thinking about it, but I was really impressed with the school (afterwards),” Dreaney said. “Everyone we met there seemed like they really enjoyed the school.”

It’ll be a big switch for Dreaney, who’s lived in Kitsap County his whole life. But with his Stanford trip as a precursor and a change of scenery on his mind, the Oly senior is ready for whatever.

“I’m not too worried about going down there,” he said. “Washington sends a lot of kids down to those schools, so there’s a lot of kids from this area that hopefully I’ll make that connection with.”

As for his studies, Dreaney is shooting big, tentatively planning on being referred to as “Dr. Dreaney” the next time he’s interviewed for a newspaper article.

“My ultimate goal is to go on to medical school, however that may work out,” he said.

But he’s not limiting himself.

“There’s a major there called ‘science technology in society.’ What that looks at is basically how science and technology has affected our society.

“And then I’d also like to minor or possibly double-major in a foreign language because I think it’s important — it obviously helps with all kinds of different skills with learning a new language. It’ll help with English and I think it’ll be a challenging thing to do and then obviously (it will) give me the opportunity to do study abroad.”

But at the end of his travels, Dreaney could end up right back where he started.

“I plan on living here (in Kitsap County) when I’m done with everything,” he said.