Ok. I’m gonna be BRUTALLY honest. This is not me reflecting on my senior, because I had fun memories with sports, the musical, ect. Instead, I’m going to give advice. At the end I will give you a short wrap up of what my year consisted of. 

**Please, please, I’d advise anyone who’s either in 9th-11th grade to read this because these are things nobody really talks about and I think these topics are things people should talk about** Also… Sorry.. this is gonna be long

Going into senior…… I wasn’t mentally prepared on what I was going to face against. Standardized tests, College Decisions, People, Realizing things, ect. When you are a senior you start loosing your “care”. For example,you can totally point out the people who are fake, and realizing it’s quite a bit of people too. Though, what you have to realize is that they are insecure, stressed about school and social stress, fitting in, and up until this point (senior year) you realize things and none of it even matters anymore. Why care doing something really weird or obnoxious and think “Oh no! I’m scared what this person is going to say. I’m gonna ruin my reputation.”  But you have to ask yourself……what reputation, why question yourself, why care what they think? You’re your own person. People ARE NOT WORTH YOUR TIME if they are going to give you, well let me say this nicely…. trash. 🙂 Have fun senior year, go out with your friends on the weekends. Surround yourself with people that you enjoy and have a good influence on yourself, instead of bringing you down/being a bad influence. 

Another topic that I’ve learned about myself is that grades and standardized tests are not all that. Let me explain. I was that person who dreaded studying for an ACT/SAT test and would force myself to study…sometimes. While taking these tests are important (even though I hate them as a student because they are mentally draining) it’s an important step in the college process. I’ve heard someone say that the school system sucks with testing because it make students feel their self-worth (whether they feel smart or dumb) and properness for college…. ALL BASED ON A TEST. I can be double sided on this because even though taking tests are awful and I don’t like how testing has a negative influence on teens, It’s important to society to go to college and make good scores in able to go to college. Some colleges even accept people based on their scores :/ which I don’t like, but whatever. What I’m trying to say, don’t let grades define who you are. Everybody has their niches, whether you’re an artist, a scientist, an athlete, ect.

Also, another important topic…. Don’t be a slave to your GPA. I hear freshmen, YES FRESHMEN talking about how they failed a daily grade assignment or a test and it bogs down their whole day and they’re “depressed” (more like teen angst). It’s a grade. I mean they can always bring it up. The thing is, is that the 9th graders are still fresh and care about their grades and “every little thing” like a 75 on a test will bring them much stress. I bring freshmen up as an example because they are still kinda young and naive and they don’t know what’s ahead of them emotionally,maturity speaking. Even students who aren’t freshman I hear the phrase, “I just failed my test” even though they probably didn’t. I mean stress and anxiety starts at a young age and that’s not good, but some people can’ t help it. Yes, I think students should care about their grades and work hard, but you should’ve be a “slave” to it. One must find a barrier between the two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWWCqKZZcIw

The last thing I want to touch on is kinda depressing, but it needs to be covered. All the time I repeatedly hear this phrase whether the intention is to either 1) to be funny/say it as a joke or 2) Think it’s funny but on the inside there’s pain. Amongst students I hear the phrase “I want to die” or “I want to kill myself”. If you think about it, those are some pretty big statements. Yes, us as teens we get angsty but there’s a barrier between being in mad moods, being emotional over a test, maybe even fighting with a parent over a bad grade or whatever teen mistake we did or whatever, but there’s another side that could potentially lead to some real pain someone is feeling. School can be STRESSFUL, but it’s what you make of it. It’s who you surround yourself with. It’s who you get help from when you can’t take it anymore. It’s getting all the negative thoughts out of your head. It’s the end of comparing yourselves to others and even on social media. And yes, they’re other endless lists of other situations students are going through that’s not just school like something going on at home or someone you know, it can literally be anything. The thing we must realize is there’s help if we need it. You’re not alone.

Enough with all of that…. now it’s time to give a brief moment of being a senior this year.
1) Cross Country was fun despite waking up early –> going out to eat afterwards –> knowing I’m not the only one who’s struggling while running.
2) Hanging out with my friends on weekends
3) The Musical and hanging out afterwards
4) Soccer and our team meetings
5) Homecoming and Prom
There’s probably more but I’m just naming my favorite school activities that I encountered this year.

As this being my last time to write on here, I want anyone who’s reading this to have fun, don’t be a slump, and make the most of it.