2016-2017 School Year Reflection

This year, I started out as a freshman in high school. This experience has been one I truly loved and learned a lot from. The years I have spent in elementary school have prepared me with the basic knowledge and life skills to prepare me for middle school and further character development. Middle school was focused more on preparing students with time management skills, self teaching, adapting to new experiences, and people skills. The past 8 years of school have been building me up to enter high school and truly start my academic path to success in the real world.

Most incoming freshman during the summer stress about assimilating into high school life, which is something I admit to. Everyone in the US school system has been told that all 8 years of school are only placed there to prepare you for high school, which are the actual years determining your future. All the mistakes and grades leading up to high school matter, but everything that is done in high school determines the university a person will go to, and ultimately, what job and how much money they will make, pretty stressful.

I started out my freshman year pretty cautious and looking for people and things to tie myself down to for stability for the rest of the year. Generally, the first month or two of any year are establishing your friends, friend groups, class subjects, and adapting to different teaching styles, schedules, and classes. After assimilating into freshman life, life was pretty average I was almost constantly stressed about some sort of school work, but managed it well and was able to keep up with some sort of social life and still was able to do things I enjoyed, even though it was much less often.

Before freshman year I was pretty much trying to do my best in school. But still had time to waste time and do the things that I enjoyed. Although, I did feel stressed in eighth grade, it was no where near close to how stressed and busy I felt in freshman year. The real kicker, was I knew from then on, It would only get worse. It was pretty stressful to think about what would happen in the future when I was still struggling as it is.

To clarify, I already knew high school life was pretty serious stuff and would set me up for a successful future, but it finally hit me when I was given a sheet of paper with many boxes and blanks for all the classes I would take in my high school career. In addition, I had to basically plan out my future at a time where I don’t really know what I will be doing in the future or where my passions lie. Having to plan out my high school future and schedule was pretty rough and took a lot more management and deep thought then I would have liked. I felt like once I established my schedule, I had already aged the four years of my high school career.

Being a freshman definitely put school and the future beyond in perspective. People always say school prepares you for life, but in school, I was already planning and doing in the real world. Before, I believed school would be stressful, as expected, and I would need to focus my every breath on school work and I knew I would need to try harder and do better in school to get more back, but there was so much more than that. I needed to make decisions for myself that no one else could, like what classes I would take and what type of future I was leading. Freshman year really set me up to what I would become in the near future.

Now, at the end of freshman year, I have changed significantly and come to terms with many things in my life and future. The independence of high school life was such a major impact on my decision making at school and the real world. The power is in my hands to do what I will with my future. I have made many decisions for myself in this year and have had to manage many stressful things at once, which was not a great experience, but one that was important to grow and move on from. Now, after experiencing life as a newcomer into high school and dipping my toes into the life beyond school, I can take away many lessons from various situations and dilemmas, which have significantly shaped me to be more independent and prepared for my future.