My Advice To High School Freshman

Our high school has already started school two days ago. That is ridiculous. I guess kids are slowly saying goodbye to summer. I digress though, it's not my battle to fight. One of my friends has entered high school and isn't to thrilled about it. I tried to remember my first week of high school and to be honest I don't remember 98% of it. I remember the first day, that's it. I remember how intimidating and scary it was to be in high school. Everyone told me it was going to amazing and exciting and it wasn't. Yet I found myself telling my friend the exact same thing that everyone told me. I just worded it differently. I wished that someone told me some advice on how to survive high school. Not that my advice is golden or perfect. I'm just giving my two-sense

1. High school isn't perfect and always fun.

Movies, TV and books lie. Except about the mean girls and terrible lunch food. It's going to get rough. Everything is new in a way. You have these expectations and new responsibilities that no one really talks about. Just take one day at a time.

2. Wear what you want.

I cannot even tell you how self-conscious I was about my clothes. I shop for clothes about three times a year and I honestly could care less about clothes. I just worried about them because that's what other girls were worried about. The thing is is that everyone is to busy thinking about themselves. No one notices how often you wear a shirt or piece of clothing. If they do that's weird. If you want to wear sweat pants to school than do it. No one cares.

3. Keep a journal.

I will never regret doing this. No matter how bad the entries were in the beginning. I read some of them and I just shake my head. At the time it felt like I was writing something brilliant. I was clearly not. My senior journal turned out to be the best journal of them all. I read most of that journal and don't shake my head. Fill the journal with quotes, pictures, stickers, drawings etc. Do whatever you want with it. You don't realize how much you change unless you write about it. 

4. Don't worry.

I know this is the most typical piece of advice. I worried about 95% of the time. Isn't it crazy how everything worked out? That test I failed was not the end of the world. I passed the classes, I graduated and everything is right with the world. Have fun.

5. Make new friends.

Freshman year was kind of an eye-opener for me. Most of my friends were jerks and I didn't see that until halfway through freshman year. Then I met Swag and the rest is history. It's not the end of the world when you lose your friends. Ask yourself if they were actually your friends and if they cared about you. Just because you haven't been friends with them your whole life doesn't mean you can't find new friends. Find your people.

6. You will change.

Change is inevitable. It's going to happen. I have changed a lot since freshman year. You will have new experiences and it will make you question what you believe. It's not necessarily a bad thing. You will grow a lot as a person. 

7. Being popular is overrated. 

On the metro to DC Fiona was telling me about these two popular girls who were having a fight on Twitter. They were best friends in high school. Now they don't talk to each other. That is so crazy to me. To think that there was this small want to be like them. When high school is over popular people lose that platform. I can imagine that they would feel a little lost now. 

8. Join clubs.

This isn't nerdy or stupid it's fun. I will never regret joining the clubs. There were so many memories hanging out in those classrooms after school. It's how you meet new people and make new friends. It was something that I wish I could have done more of senior year.

9. Find that 'teacher'. 

You will have good and bad teachers. I forget a lot about the bad teachers but not the good teachers. Find that teacher that sees the best in you and sees your full potential. I was lucky enough to have at least two of those. Those types of teachers make high school for you. Find the teacher that you will want to see again in ten years. They were the reason that I came to school everyday. 

10. It's only four years.

High school seems like the most important thing when you're in it. It's not though. It's such a small part of your life. Be who you are and do what you want to do. Cut your hair, make new friends and do something spontaneous. Make as many memories as possible. School is important but memories are more important. That's what you're going to remember. Not the test that you got a hundred on.  

DFTBA

-AB