Senior year is an exciting time for a high school student, but it of course comes with its unique set of challenges. Being the oldest child in my household, I didn't have anyone other than my parents to give me advice for the year, and their advice was all along the lines of submitting college applications and polishing off your final transcript. If I could go back in time and have a talk with my incoming senior self, there are definitely a few more pieces of advice that I'd give her -- things that I wish someone had told me before I started my last year of high school.
1. Get your college applications finished early. Submit them all by the November 1 Early Action deadline, even if your school doesn't offer an Early Action program. You'll be thankful you did when it's Christmas break and all of your friends are scrambling to tie up the loose ends of their applications.
2. Go to every school event, even when you don't want to. Sure, sitting in your bed with some popcorn and Netflix seems like the better option, but take advantage of every football game, talent show and awards ceremony. Bring some friends along and make it a fun night out.
3. You're going to grow apart from a lot of people. Keep the ones you treasure close. Your circle may expand, or (more likely), it'll shrink smaller. Instead of fighting to keep people around that have zero intention of being a good friend, let them go. It'll hurt. It'll suck royally. But focus on surrounding yourself with those that you're going to be heartbroken to leave behind when you go to college. Those are the friends that will stick with you throughout your whole life.
4. Tell the boy you like him. It's scary, but it can stem into something incredible -- something that makes you a happier person than you ever thought you could be.
5. Prom drama is inevitable. Even when it's a week before prom and you think you're in the clear, it'll happen. Expect it. Embrace it. And always have a backup plan.
6. Put 110 percent into your schoolwork, even when you don't feel like you should. Senioritis is a real disease, and even the most diligent of students will start to feel its effects as the weather gets warmer and graduation looms on the horizon. As painstaking as it may be, force yourself to finish that math assignment or ace that economics quiz. Whether or not your college looks at your fourth quarter grades is besides the point. Don't be known as the shining student that gave up in the home stretch.
7. Save your absences. Put in the work for the year, and as the end of the school year approaches, that's when a day off for a trip to the beach for Senior Skip Day isn't that detrimental to your well-being.
8. It's a year of lasts, so make them the best lasts ever. Don't just go to the basketball game. Go with a group of friends, get some face paint and cheer until your lose your voice. Bring your camera to the last day of school and snap pictures with all of the teachers that helped shape you into who you are. Opt for a late night trip to the diner with friends on a Friday night instead of staying in. Soak up every last minute of your last nine months with some people that you'll be separated with for quite some time.
10. Make sure you're proud of the legacy you're leaving behind. Be known as the kind one, the funny one, or the one that's always willing to lend a helping hand at an event. Be remembered in the halls of your high school in any way that you wish -- but make sure that you're proud of it.
So, if you're an incoming senior looking for some advice or a recent graduate reflecting on what the beginning of that fateful year was like for you, take some of these things I've learned along the way and make your year as fantastic as it has the potential to be.
