Advice to new students!

Jocelyn Jarro

To freshmen: your first year will be your easiest. Yes, maybe your first month will hit a little more complicated than others, but ultimately, you will adapt. This year, you need to try your absolute best to have a little fallback space Junior/Senior year. As a junior, I will tell you it is hard to keep up the grades I had freshman year, and I cannot thank my younger self enough for having fallback grades to maintain my 3.9 GPA.

After that important note, here’s the next: shoot for the stars, and land somewhere in the clouds. Be realistic. Harvard is overrated anyway. This doesn’t mean stop striving to get there, but don’t be upset when you get rejected. Cornell, Brown, all the Ivy’s are expensive and overrated anyway. Work for yourself and yourself only, do not compare your grades to others. I promise you it will shatter your self-esteem. Getting a 92% on a test is impressive, do NOT compare it to someone else’s 98%. You still did terrifically.

Do your extracurricular activities. One or two clubs after school are not much, I promise. It looks so good on your transcript and feels so nice to contribute. I miss doing the Garden Club or Dance Club; it was all so fun. Do it while you have time. Junior year consists of SAT Prep, clubs, internships, maintaining one thousand AP classes, and outside factors like learning how to drive and taking your test. It’s a lot in one year, and I promise you it can get very overwhelming. So if I could go back in time, I would get most of my community service and extracurricular activities out of the way.

Record your memories! Oh, you will miss the day when you only had two ten minute homework assignments and the afternoon to yourself. I can’t remember the last time I had more than an hour to myself in the afternoon/evening on school days. Go out with your friends (responsibly, of course) and take so many pictures/videos! Cherish the moments you have now. I’m not saying you won’t ever have fun again, but after the first few months of sophomore year, you start to peer over the hill and see imminent doom.

To my lowerclassmen: you’re doing fantastic. I know you get told that a lot, but I need you to believe it. You’re what keeps the rest of the school running, as our tiny gears. Having that freshman energy in the halls while you fast-walk to your classes because you’re not used to the 4-minute travel is necessary for the rest of us. Some of us might bully you because a handful of you will think you’re better than us, so keep your head down. But always keep your chest high. Be realistic, try your best, and look at the long run.