As a high school senior, my final year is coming to an end, so I wanted to share some tips with future or current high school students on how to survive high school.
1. Get to Know Your Counselor
Your counselor is the one who arranges your class schedule and can write you recommendation letters when you are applying for college or scholarships. It is best if you and your counselor get to know each other better so when the time comes that you need a recommendation letter, they will be able to write something unique, rather than something generic.
Being close with your counselor can also benefit you when you need to alter your schedule. You can ask them to change your schedule to better suit your needs, and if you are close with them, it would be easier since your counselor can match you to subjects that fit you the most.
2. Try To Be More Kind
Although this may seem like common sense, this can help you if you’re someone who is really into extracurriculars and has many of them, this can help when you want to manage your time better and to attend various meetings or events. For example, you are part of the swimming team and you have a practice that day, and you’re also gonna have a club meeting in the same time frame as your swimming practice but it would end a bit earlier. You can ask your coach if you can attend the club meeting first and leave a bit early on your club meeting so that you can attend practice. Even though this kind of favor can be repetitive sometimes, as long as you are trying to be kind, then your teachers would be more considerate when it comes to these favors.
3. Try New Activities
You will never know if you will like an activity unless you try it. For example, I was not very interested in creative activities like drawing and creating layouts, but when I joined my school’s yearbook committee, it made me push myself to be creative and I began to love designing layouts.
Trying activities in school that you may not normally want to do may sometimes be a bit risky. But that is the whole point in high school, exploring new things that you may love as well as going outside of your comfort zone. You may never know, that extracurricular that you tried for fun would be one of the extracurriculars that you would dedicate your time to the most, as well as a prominent activity when you apply for college.
4. Keep Track of Everything That you Have Done
Try to record everything that you have done every day whether you are using a bullet journal, diary, planner, or your phone. You can note special events or your favorite moment of that day. Then at the end of the school year, you can look back at those moments.
This can also benefit you when it comes to college application essays, you can add some activities that can be an inspiration when writing for essay prompts. You can also track graduation requirements outside of academics, like community service hours.
5. It is OKAY to Fail
No one is perfect, everyone has failed more than once in their high school life, even high achieving students. You can look at that failure and see that as an obstacle to overcome, and that failure may lead you to a serendipitous path. Do not let go and do not give up on yourself. It is okay to take breaks, but you should not quit and instead, keep moving forward.
6. Be Yourself
As cliche as it sounds, it can set you apart from everyone else. You cannot impress everyone, but you can discover yourself and what your likes and dislikes are, as well as what you are passionate about. Eventually, the right people will accept you for who you are and be your friends.
If you try to be trendy or try to fit in, it will eventually show. Also, you would not enjoy your experience in high school if you try to please others without pleasing yourself. That is why being yourself would be better in the long run, because as time goes on, your true colors would show and you would be more comfortable with yourself and the people around you.
7. Enjoy & Have Fun
High school is the transition stage in life; the teen years. No matter what happens, simply enjoy it and have fun. Everything will fall into place and naturally flow with the energy.
Letting yourself loose and surrounding yourself with the people that you enjoy your time with can make your high school experience more enjoyable. Although being productive is an efficient way in spending your time in high school, finding the balance between being productive and having fun would make your high school experience effective and enjoyable.
References:
“my stats + realistic advice for high school⚡️.” Youtube, uploaded by Christine Lee, 6 Aug. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2CntC9KgrA.
Edited by Ally Chan.
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Liannah is one of the blog writers for Just For You Tutoring. She is a senior in Milpitas high school in California. She likes Kpop but especially, Girls Generation, EXO, and Red Velvet. She enjoys writing, Youtube, vlogging, and makeup.
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