Challenge 10: Advice

6. If you were to look back on your high school years, what advice would you give to someone beginning their high school career? (Simmons)

Even though I have been in high school for only two years, there are many things that I have already learned. The following list consists of some of the thing that I think newcomers in high school should be aware of before starting their high school careers.

1. Control the amount of tuck you eat; there is always plenty of junk food available, but you should always restrain yourself when it’s necessary.

2. Sweeping your room will be extremely frustrating: the broom will not reach all the ridiculous corners, under the beds, and between the furniture. Be prepared to discover spiders and end up with bleeding fingers by the time you have completed the task.

3. Don’t spend all your time watching movies. The freedom that it seems to ignite is not the whole story because the next day, a grumpy you will return to dorms feeling guilty of having watched a horror movie instead of completing your notes for Ms. Leon.

4. Read. As the work piles up, the time you used to spend reading, if you did spend any, will be taken away. Make time to read and build your vocabulary.

5. Be yourself. Don’t pretend to be somebody else, because as someone said, “everyone else is taken.”

6. Take part in sports, in the musical, and other extracurricular activities. It will help you develop as a person and help you build your personality and character.

7. Listen to good music. Music will help you ease away the stress and pressure from your teachers. It will calm you down.

8. Be prepared to fail. Though middle school was easy, high school is not the same. There are going to be many times where you are going to fail despite how much effort you put into something. You just have to make something out of your mistake and move on.

9. Make good friends because you will need them. They will be your pillars of support as you go through tough times of high school, like academic stress or painful break-ups.

10. Don’t be afraid to stand out. There will come many opportunities for you to stand out and show-off your talents; it is just a matter of choosing to embrace it or not.

11. Memorize stuff. You will learn so much content, especially in history, that if you don’t review and even memorize the things you learn, you will forget them.

12. Be prepared to meet teachers who will be absolutely useless. Yes, they will just stand in front of the class with a book in their hands and will literally read everything right out of the text. No explanations at all. You will be responsible to make the effort to understand the materials yourself.

13. Be careful in the locker areas. After the end of each period, they get extremely crowded and if will be unimaginably impossible to get to your next class. Also, be ready to have your head banged in the locker or your face shoved by an enormous elbow.

14. Spend time in the library. It has a really calm and quiet atmosphere (most of the time anyways) that will allow you to read and discover celebrated works of literature that will come handy later on in your junior and senior years.

15. Read the news every day. I know that in middle school, it is easy to live life under a rock, but in high school, it is important that you know your current events and what is happening in the world. Many of your classes will require you to discuss and understand current affairs.

16. Celebrate your birthdays. It may seem childish for you to celebrate your seventeenth birthday, but trust me, you will want to enjoy every moment of it with your friends.

17. Buy your camera. Capture precious moments because, sixty years from now, you will want to flip back to your high school years and think of the great times you spent.