Advice for high school freshmen

As my own high school journey comes to an end, I’ve decided to put together a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the years. I didn’t have much guidance when I was a freshman coming into high school, so the following reflections are really what I would’ve told myself back then if I could do so now.

Prioritize more than just schoolwork

This is a big one, and really the biggest lesson you should be taking away from this. Your grades are significant factors that play into university admissions and scholarship decisions. But they’re also not the only factors at play, and I would argue that they’re not the most important either (not just for applications, but for your career and life too). More important than your academics are the experiences that build you as a person; don’t miss out on them.

Explore interests

This is something that’s really important once you’re in university, and it can give you a good leg-up if you start taking it seriously in high school. Join clubs related to your interests, even if you’re on the edge about whether you’re genuinely interested in some of them (you can always drop some of them if you lose interest).

Be it robotics (FIRST Robotics), business (DECA), medicine (Brain Bee), or any of the countless other clubs probably at your school, there is no shortage of cliques you can join. And in the event you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for (or maybe you’re just really passionate about something niche), you can always start your club (it doesn’t have to be limited to your school, either; with tools like Discord and Slack, building an online community is easier than ever, and how most of the clubs at my school operate under COVID-19 restrictions).

As for myself, I attribute a lot of my current skills to my time spent on Arctos 6135 (a FIRST Robotics team), not just because of how much I learned while working on the team but also because of the mindset I adopted from my time there and how that’s guided my learning up to where I am today. Don’t be one of those people who miss out on clubs because of how much time they spend studying; in my eyes, they’re the fundamental building blocks of your high school experience.

If there is ever an optimal time to test the waters and try out experimental things, high school is it. You’ve got the mental plasticity, maturity, and the time surplus to actually make headway towards accomplishing it. All you really need is motivation to get started (and discipline to get finished).

Build (good) habits

Your habits now are going to dictate how you live your life going forward; make sure that the habits you’ve got are worth having. Don’t get enough exercise (don’t fool yourself, you know whether or not you need more exercise)? Go to the gym, even just for one day (or join an intramural sport; they’re heaps of fun). Don’t get enough sleep? Establish a strict sleeping schedule and follow it. Don’t see your grades rise despite spending hours studying? Figure out where you’re going wrong (be it in your learning or your remembering of information), and build a better study schedule. The hardest part is almost always getting started, so if you can push yourself to get past even just the first hurdle, you’re already making serious progress towards getting to the end.

Have fun

Last but definitely not the least, go out and have fun. High school is a unique experience that you really only go through once, so make the most of your time there. Come university and who knows what after it, high school is just the beginning of the many radical changes you’re going to experience. So while you make sure to keep your grades up and take part in the many opportunities at your disposal, don’t forget to have some fun. Cultivate relationships, and be sure to nip toxic ones in the bud. Looking back on my own experiences in high school, my interactions with my friends and the joyous memories I have of us together are at the top of the list of things I cherish most about my high school experience. Make them some of yours, too.