Are you an incoming freshman in high school and scared about your upcoming high school experience? With this article, I can address your concerns and tell you what you’ll need to know to have a successful high school experience!
1. Join Clubs!: Joining clubs is one of the best ways to make new friends while exploring your interests. No matter how scary it might be at first, it will be worth it when you make new friends and get to spend time doing what you are passionate about. If you’re interested in an idea that your school doesn’t have a club for, talk to your counselor about starting a club. Then, you can ask some people you know to help spread the word about your club, and hopefully, people will join!
2. Don’t Procrastinate: As a procrastinator myself, I can say that you do not want to procrastinate a lot in high school. Work will pile up on you eventually, and it won’t be fun when you have to stay up until 2 a.m. (I experienced it a lot last year when my classes started to get harder). It’s better to get an early start to your work so you can have more time to revise and ask questions about the material later near the due date. Plus, (at least in my experience), if you procrastinate when you get anxious about your work not being done, it’s easier to go ahead and start your homework sooner than later.
3. Try to Talk: Try to talk to at least two people in each class for the first week of school. You can say things like, “What’s your schedule like?” or “Do you like (insert school subject)?”. It will make them feel more comfortable, as they’re probably anxious as well, and you might make a new friend! Then, if you get to know them a bit, you have a person or two to sit with at lunch if you need. You also will have a person to contact if you need help with work for that class.
4. Ask for Help: Be sure to always ask for help if you need it! In freshman year, I was sometimes scared to ask for help from teachers because I was shy, but I can promise you teachers will be nice to you most of the time and be glad to help. After all, it’s their job! It’s better to get clarification than to potentially not know what’s going on and miss questions on a test. If you’re a bit shy at first to talk to them in person, you can always email your teacher with a question you’re wondering about.
5. Be Yourself!: In high school, it’s critical to try and be yourself and not an altered, fake version of yourself to please others. You will attract people with whom you resonate if you can just be yourself. Also, you are more than enough just the way you are, and you don’t need to change yourself to “fit in.” It might seem a bit cringe, but it is true! You should be unique because the school will be a better place for your individuality!
I hope that with these tips you feel a little more confident for your start to high school. I’ll be sharing these same tips with my incoming freshmen on orientation day as an orientation leader! Remember that high school is just a blip in time and ten years later, it won’t matter very much at all, so try not to stress too much! :)