Freshman year fear is something everyone experiences on different levels when they enter high school, whether you deny it or not. There is always that gut-wrenching feeling of entering the unknown. You can never be fully prepared for everything high school will throw at you, but there are more important things you should know.
There is a very big maturity and responsibility jump from middle school to high school. Sometimes freshmen get excited for the “freedom” that high school brings, and it ends up not being as fun as they think. In high school you have to be self dependent, you need to keep track of your assignments and grades yourself. Your teacher isn’t going to hunt you down for not doing work like they did when you were younger, you just receive a zero. You also have a lot more classes, so the workload can add up fast. The speed of the courses also increases significantly with the shorter amount of time they have to teach the material.
“I didn’t realize how much I had to learn by myself and the amount of content I’d have to learn,” freshman Emma Sauvanargues said.
Along all of the responsibilities of high school comes with its fun too. There’s such a wide variety of clubs, sports, bands, or choruses that you can choose to join and involve yourself in. This involvement adds excitement to your high school experience because there is something for every interest. With all of the different options it’s easy to meet a variety of people amongst different grades and truly discover yourself and your interests. It’s definitely a good idea to try out some of the different options to get a variety of learning experiences, create good relationships with students and staff, and get your name out there for when you start to look for jobs and colleges.
“I can say that all the clubs in high school have given me more of a well-roundedness,” said junior Gabby Silva.
With the pressure and responsibility of keeping up with all your work and grades comes competition. The most emphasized competition in high school remains between students, because as you start getting a GPA and class rank in high school, people want to be higher than everyone else on that list. The biggest tip for new high schoolers is to not worry about what other people’s grades look like. The only competition you should be having is between you and yourself. You should be striving to do better and better and not compare yourself with other people. It’s also important not to fear too much about different possible scenarios of graduating or not. As long as you keep up with your classes and take all the courses you need to, you are going to be successful. A few bad test grades aren’t going to end your high school or future college career.
“The AP classes are definitely a full workload but my GPA is most important to me so I can get into Columbia,” said senior Zoe Sauvagnargues
Freshmen shouldn’t dwell too much on their fears of high school. Everyone will get through it just like the other classes have, you just have to be prepared for the responsibilities and keep on top of your work for the benefit of yourself.
