My Top Freshman Advice

My Top Freshman Advice

Highschool brings can be very exciting but also bring forth overwhelming experiences. For instance, it takes time and patience to get used to the new experiences, emotions, and responsibilities. Transitioning from middle school to highschool can seem like the first steps into the “real world”, which is filled with more expectations, social environment, and so many more responsibilities to handle. It seems daunting at first, but I promise you’ll get used to it eventually and over time. And even though it is scary, it’s also a time to make advancements in your personal growth and development, learn more about yourself and your interests, and figure out what you want to do in the future. Currently, I’m a month into my second semester of my freshman year and there’s only about 4 months of school left so I’ve compiled a list of things I would like to share with any incoming freshmen next year. This is my top advice to avoid burnout, stay on top of school work and extracurriculars, get back on track if you’re having a tough time, balance schoolwork with personal life, and truly enjoy your first year of high school. From building relationships, letting your past go, and getting out of your comfort zone, to balancing things you like with things you have to get done and organizing your environment to just random miscellaneous advice, I hope this guide will help you grow and change for the better.

Start with the basics: prioritize and care for yourself and your health 

Prioritizing and caring for yourself before everything else creates a foundation based on independence and self-love, which will help you become the best version of yourself in highschool. Freshman year can be overwhelming and it is easy to prioritize school work first before your own well-being. But you need sleep. You need good food. You need to do some kind of physical activity. You need to have a way to relax. You need to calm down and do what is best for you. These are all non-negotiables, especially during stressful times. I know it seems overly simple, but doing the little things matters a lot more than you may think. Falling in love with personal development and becoming the best version of yourself that you can be enhances your self-respect and will make sure that you treat yourself with compassion, patience, and respect. 

Organize your environment 

When I say “organize your environment”, I don’t just mean organize your desk and schoolwork, I mean to say that you need to organize every aspect of your life to the best of your ability. “Life” is a broad term so let’s break that down first. By “life” I mean areas that you could develop, and as a highschooler, this mainly consists of three categories- your personal life, school life, and the time you spend on your extracurriculars. If you want to improve these areas of your life, there are some main steps that you can take. The first step is to see where your priorities lie and to focus on them first before anything else. In my opinion, your priorities should be determining your path towards growth. If you’re like me, then you know that wanting to do so many things is overwhelming and can be too much at times. It’s great to want to do many things and be passionate, however, that’s not realistic. The next step would be to determine your secondary goals. Your secondary goals are hobbies or activities that you care about, but they aren’t top priority. This list should consist of less than 5 activities. Your next step would be to figure out everything else and your situation with that. This would just be a list of hobbies that can help you unwind or things that you can do in your free time. It’s important to not let these activities consume your time, even if they are moderately important. And if these activities get too much to handle, then you have to be okay with letting them go. After you have sorted out your activities into these three categories, it’s time to organize them more. For all the things in your top priorities list, give them value. What this means is that you have briefly identified why you are doing everything on this list. Good reasons to do things on your top priority list could be for your mental well-being, money, energy, discipline, etc. This will give you a sense of purpose and help turn this list into habits.

Have a support system

I think that so many people overlook the importance of having a well-built support system. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals with the same passions and goals can greatly help your mental health and it’s just so encouraging and motivating. But other than academics, it’s also great to have a chill friend group that’s just for fun. Remember that all of these people should be people that make an effort to make you feel good about yourself, encourage you, and help you when you need it. And of course you should care about these friends enough to do the same for them. Know that having friends is a way that you can take care of yourself and others. Overall, friends are there to give you a sense of belonging, help reduce your stress levels, improve your overall health, give you emotional support, and improve your self-esteem. 

The concept of time and working with it

One thing about highschool that nobody really tells you about is that everything takes so much time. But what you do with that time really matters. Are you going to try to do everything at once and overwhelm yourself or do things one at a time slowly but be more productive overall? Remember that everything amazing begins with one small step. Identifying the study habits that work for you takes time. Getting to know yourself takes time. Getting used to high school takes time. Building commitment and new relationships take time. Opening up and letting go takes time. Loving and healing takes time. You don’t have to figure out your plan for the next four years overnight. You have four years of highschool to learn and grow and change. If you prioritize what you really want and what you really need, then you will get that over time. But it requires consistency. It requires hard work. It requires working even when it gets tiring and overwhelming. Think about whether or not you are ready to commit to that. 

Get out of your comfort zone and explore

There’s a quote that’s like “Growth begins where your comfort zone ends” and I think that’s so true. Growth happens when you’re scared, overwhelmed, tired, but you still do what is needed to get done anyway. In my opinion, personal development and learning, not for school purposes, but for yourself and your own growth, is one of the most important takeaways you can get from high school. Even if you go out of your comfort zone and fail, that's better than nothing because failure teaches lessons. Nothing grows in comfort. All the discoveries you will make are when you are navigating the unknown. Because the reality is that success is uncomfortable at first.

Let your past go

Know that what will happen in middle school will not happen in highschool. There are so many more opportunities to learn and change. Letting go will be painful and difficult but you have to get rid of those expired feelings to make room for personal development. Letting go doesn’t mean that you have lost your past. It means that you are ready to find your new, current self. And sometimes it’s best to let go because there are so many unknown doubts and conflicting feelings that it is best to leave them in the past where they belong. So many people hold on to their grudges, regrets, and mistakes, but that won’t change anything. What matters is how you’re going to change yourself now to be a better person for yourself and others in the future. 

Form more relationships

High school is a great time to have new relationships because there are so many different kinds of people with different interests, perspectives, and mindsets. You can make new friends for support, encouragement, motivation, and just for fun. Form relationships with teachers and upperclassmen to get advice and help. And definitely networking as much as you can in the field that you are going to go into. This will help you gain learning opportunities. 

Miscellaneous advice 

- Always bring a full water bottle and small snacks to school.

- Wear what you want (unless they're inappropriate of course), I promise that no one’s going to care.

- These are your last four years of being a kid. Enjoy it.

- Don’t sign up for a class just because your friends are taking it. Do what you truly want to do or you might regret it. 

- Always have an emergency bag in your backpack with bandages, chapstick, deodorant, etc.

- Don’t be afraid to ask for help, that’s why your teachers are there.

- Use online resources like khan academy

- Get involved in clubs and extracurricular activities that interest you

- Volunteer 

- Be polite to adults and upper classmen

- Do your homework as soon as you get it. Even if you only have a few minutes, it’s best to just start it, if only a little bit.

- Have a method of planning your activities.

- The teachers aren’t going to pay as much attention to you like in elementary or middle school. Be responsible and do what you're supposed to do. Discipline is one of the best skills you can have.

**𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝙼𝚒𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚘𝚏𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚕𝚘𝚝**