By Makenna Lewis
Similar to the beginning of the school year, the end is plagued with reflections. How was your year? What did you learn? Where do you plan to go from here? It’s a widely accepted truth that high school is significantly different from middle and elementary school, which, in most contexts, sounds rather negative. But, as Oscar Wilde writes in his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
My freshman year, for better or for worse, was absolutely nothing like I anticipated—and, for better or for worse, the complete opposite of simple.
While I attended middle school, my teachers made such an exaggeration about how different and challenging and strict high school would be. By the name I’d signed off for the summer last year, I was terrified for ninth grade. The thing is, high school isn’t as scary as it sounds. The teachers, at least at ASU Prep, are really nice. The projects are usually fun. The lessons are typically engaging. At its core, ninth grade wasn’t too different from other grades.
That doesn’t mean that my freshman year was exclusively positive, though. High school, as a general rule, is just as miserable as it is fun. There were things that I didn’t care about learning, assignments that didn’t interest me, and, of course, tests—not to mention the constant looming shadow of what comes next.
Still, I learned a lot, and not just in my lessons.
There are many challenges to overcome in high school, and mine ended up being mainly related to self-discovery. When I first started attending ASUPD a few months into eighth grade, I was rather miserable. It was very, very different from the school I had gone to for most of my life, and I wasn’t quite prepared. This year, however, I managed both my time and stress a lot better. I spent a lot less time trying to be perfect on every assignment. I stepped out of my comfort zone by joining the Student Blog club, too.
The best advice I can give anyone is to try to enjoy high school as best you can. It isn’t all going to be good, but it isn’t all going to be bad, either. Do a little more research when you’re doing projects you enjoy, join a club that interests you, think a little deeper about the subjects you study. Be curious and creative—and be yourself, too.
