Advice to My Freshman Self

I graduate in ten days... 10!!! I am so ready to graduate and move on to college, but it's also a little sad at the same time. I've had the same friends nearly my entire life and it's going to be hard saying goodbye to them. I was lucky to have had a pretty good high school experience. It wasn't awful like some movies portray it as, but it also wasn't the best time ever (except maybe the second half of senior year). College is definitely going to be amazing! I do have some words of wisdom to give to any incoming freshman or current underclassmen, though. I know what I'm talking about, because I've been through it all! If I could tell my freshman self some things, these would be it:

Do the homework. 

I can honestly say that my overall grade has been saved multiple times because of my homework grades. Most, if not all teachers give you credit simply for doing the homework. They don't care if it's right or wrong, they just like to see effort. Doing some math problems each night or filling out a history worksheet does not take very long and those types of things are easy points. You'll be grateful you did the assignments when you're one point away from an A and you get bumped!

Your friends are going to change. 

I have had the same people in my grade since kindergarten. When I entered high school, I assumed that I would stay friends with all the same people because there was nobody "new." I was so wrong! When I got involved in a bunch of activities, I met upperclassmen. This completely shaped my high school experience into what it was. I had a lot of friends that were older than me- it was great for genuine advice on how to navigate high school, rides when they got their license (!), and a change of scenery from my normal friend group. My friend group now is not what it was freshman year! I spoke about this in an earlier post, but I only just found my "group" this year. I've really connected with certain people that I've never spoken to before this year. It's funny to see how we all kind of came together from different friend groups. I have gotten insanely close to my friends and have met some of my best friends this year. As a freshman, I would have never guessed that the classmates I occasionally said hi to would end up becoming my closest confidants.

Build up your GPA freshman and sophomore year. 

I took relatively easy classes freshman and sophomore year, with only a few honors classes. These two years are when you should be consistently doing the work, studying for your tests on time and generally staying on top of things. If you have good grades, your GPA is going to be harder to bring down once you start taking those APs and the workload ends up being more difficult. As we all know, I got mono my junior year and my grades suffered immensely. However, my GPA was barely affected seeing that I got straight A's the first two years of high school! The bottom line is: classes get really hard later on in high school, so save the bad grades for those times, not freshman year when you can easily get A's!

Get involved.

This is such a cliche and I'm sure every high school advice post will mention this! I met so many people through the different activities I participated in. I also think joining different organizations all across the board allows you to make friends from all sorts of backgrounds. Here are a few things I did in high school: student council, golf, music, church, debate... I loved how I had friends from completely different friend groups. I knew I could always find a friend no matter where I was, and that was really comforting. Not to mention, these things look good when you start applying to colleges. 

Time management is everything. 

I lived off of Lilly Pulitzer planners for all 4 years of high school (it's also kind of like a little diary to look back on and see everything you accomplished!). Writing down things as they come up is really, really important. I used to just think that I would remember everything and write it down when I got home. But we're all humans, and we all forget things. Use your planner and figure out how much time you have to study for a test. Do homework assignments from hardest to easiest. PRIORITIZE. 

Have a couple of close guy friends.

This might sound like weird advice, but it's one of the best things I did in high school. I LOVE having guy friends. It is so nice sometimes to get away from all the girl drama and just hang out with people who don't care about your hair, or what this person said to that person yesterday. I have become extremely close with my guy friends and 3 or 4 of them are my best friends. Guys see things differently and are always down for an adventure. I also like going to them for advice about other guys! A friend relationship with a guy is so much different than one with a girl. I love both types of friendships equally, but I think they're both really different and that every person needs both types of relationships to have a healthy balance. 

Hopefully this will help out any freshman. I loved writing this and reflecting on things that really shaped my experience in high school/what got me through it all. 

Thanks for reading! 

-Ashley Ann