As a freshman, I remember reading all of the seniors’ high school reflection articles on “The Caldron” website. Now, here I am, being the one who is writing a high school reflection for “The Caldron.” I am very thankful for the opportunities to be president of Interact club and co-editor-in-chief of “The Caldron” during my time at JCHS. I have learned many valuable lessons during these past four years of high school, and my experiences at JCHS have shaped me into the person I am today.

General  Advice: 

Take at least one class each year that you think you will enjoy. Your school day will be a lot better when you have a class you look forward to. If you know you are someone who needs time to decompress during the school day, make sure to put a class in your schedule that you know is going to be more laid back.  

One bad grade on a test is not going to ruin everything. Doing bad in one class one marking period is not going to ruin your overall grade point average. Depending on what classes you take, you may be in a class where you are not going to get an A every marking period. The key is to try to do well in a majority of your classes. 

Don’t be afraid to try something new. High School is a great time to explore and see what you like and don’t like. Join a new club or try out a new sport because you may find that you really enjoy it. Even if you do not enjoy it, you can always quit the next year. You grow the most when you step out of your comfort zone, so do some things that are out of your comfort zone. 

Remember that high school does not last forever. Take comfort in this. That one class that seems like a never ending struggle will eventually come to an end. All the friend drama and whether you were that popular or not will not matter in five years. 

Freshmen: 

Some people love their freshman year of high school, and some people don’t. For a lot of people, including myself, freshman year was not as good as some of my other years of high school. If you are a freshman and freshman year has not been that enjoyable, I promise it gets better. As a freshman, you also want to try to do well in school. You are likely going to have some of the easiest classes during your freshman year, so you want to try to do well. Your freshman year grades also set a foundation for your overall GPA, so take your classes seriously, and try to do well. 

Join some kind of extracurricular activity. I highly recommend getting involved in at least one club, because the experiences you have in each club will help you develop certain skills and grow as a person. Most clubs meet during school hours, so you will be able to join clubs even if you have something going on after school. It also will look great on your college application. If you are interested in joining a new sport, I would go for it and try it out. It’s not too late to join a new sport in high school; there are plenty of people who started a new sport their freshman year and are great at it. And if you are someone who is not interested in trying any sport, you will still have a great high school experience. I personally did not do any sports, because no sport seemed to be a good fit for me. But, my advice remains the same: get involved in some kind of extracurricular activity in school. 

Sophomores:

As a sophomore, you want to get involved in any clubs that you want to join that you did not get involved with freshman year. You are more likely going to get a leadership position in a club during your junior year if you are a member of the club during your sophomore year. Also continue to try your best to keep up your grades sophomore year. I honestly do not have much more to say because my sophomore year was online due to COVID, so it was different than a typical sophomore year would be.

Juniors: 

Don’t be scared about junior year. When I was a sophomore, everyone acted like your  junior year was going to be really hard and stressful. However, while I definitely had more work my junior year compared to my senior year, I really enjoyed my junior year. Unless you are taking more AP classes than you can handle or putting way too much on your plate in general, the workload is definitely manageable and really not that much different compared to your freshman or sophomore year. You will have to take some standardized tests, such as the SAT, but in the grand scheme of things, these tests do not take up too much of your time.

Junior year is the first year where you are able to take multiple AP classes. I recommend doing an AP class or two, if you are interested in the subject of the AP class and in good academic standing. However, I would not go overboard with the AP classes. You need to know what your limits are and know when you are putting too much on your plate. Since you need to get a four or five on the AP exam (which can be hard to get depending on the AP subject), I would not take an AP class solely because you want to get college credit. I took AP Lang during my junior year and AP Lit during my senior year, which worked really well for me because I was able to challenge myself without overly stressing myself out. My writing skills improved a lot from both of these classes and the writing skills I learned in AP Lang and AP Lit have helped me a lot and will continue to help me in college. 

             Start thinking about colleges. The beginning of senior year will come quicker than you expect. Start going on tours of schools that you think you may want to apply to. Seeing a bunch of different schools will also help you get a better idea of if you want to attend a smaller or bigger school.

Seniors: 

I suggest applying to colleges in the very beginning of the school year. If you are not completely sure about a school, apply there anyway because sometimes the school you like the most is a school you did not think you would like that much. During the week before school started, the guidance counselors let seniors come in to get a head start on their college applications before the school year started. I highly recommend doing this because it is much easier to have most of your college application done before you start having work from classes. The sooner you apply to colleges, the sooner you will find out if you have been accepted or not. You will then have more time to look at the options you have and decide what school will be best for you. 

Apply to scholarships. There are a bunch of local scholarships you can apply to throughout your senior year. One strategy that worked really well for me was using my time during study or any other free time I got in school to work on my essays for scholarships. Since I work more efficiently during school compared to when I get home, I got my scholarship essays finished way more efficiently by doing the majority of them during school. 

Do fun activities during your senior year of high school. Go to the football games with your friends and go to the school plays. Do something fun on the weekend and try to have one day on the weekend where you do not do any homework. A part of high school is also having fun and making good memories. Five years from now, you are not going to remember how well you did on a test, but you will remember the good times you had in high school. 

Overall, my high school experience has shaped me into who I am today. Even though there are some things about high school that I probably will not miss, I had a good high school experience overall and am thankful for all the important lessons my time at JCHS has taught me. Whether you have a good high school experience, bad high school experience, or just an okay high school experience, you will learn valuable lessons that will help you in the future.