The time between the first day of your senior year and the moment after you graduate is about 25 seconds and a mortifying rollercoaster of emotions. No person’s experience is perfect; we all leave behind feelings of “I wish I had done this sooner,” and “Someone should have told me this as a freshman.” The worst feeling a person can experience is regret. Even though right now it’s in the middle of the summer, there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of preparation so you don’t regret everything. If I could go back and tell my freshman self anything, these are the most important lessons i’ve learned.

1. Focus on your schoolwork

Possibly one of the most cliche yet under-appreciated sentiments to give to a teenager. Most of the time it is coming from their parents in a tone that doesn’t bear any sense of experience or honesty. However, this time it’s coming from someone who just stepped out of their shoes. Yes, how you spend your freshman year of high school will determine how the next four years will go. If you have the aptitude and patience, you will survive your first algebra class. You will also thank yourself later when you take the extra time to study and end up making an A in the class you hate the most. Those that I know who spent their time slacking off are now stepping into the next phase of their life with an unsure step. There’s an ironic good side to this if you’re not school-orientated: most schools do not offer scholarships for 4.0 GPAs and you don’t even get a piece of paper congratulating you for being in the top 10 percent of your class. What you can get at the end of your high-school career, however, is free college credit. Most schools give you the opportunity to take beginner college courses your senior year. Take as many as you can, and your first year of college might just become your easy second year.

2. Get involved

It’s daunting as a senior when you are asked to fill out basically your whole life story for the yearbook. There’s nothing worse than telling the yearbook committee that you’ve just done nothing for four years. You spent so many hours in your school and you never did anything besides go to class? Even if sports aren’t your forte, (I had a terrible experience with tennis my freshman year) you can make friends in clubs that last a lifetime. Even if you are low-key in your school's Anime and Dungeons & Dragons club (there’s no shame), you can still make friends and still be involved in school. You may find interests you never knew you had, and create some of the greatest memories in high school. Not to mention colleges love it when you’ve participated in anything; it shows commitment and passion for your work.

3. Be friends with your teachers

As freshman, teachers can be very intimidating, but by your senior year, you end up talking with them like you’ve been friends for years. Not all teachers can be Mr. Keating from "Dead Poets Society", but if you get to know you teacher, you’ll end up really enjoying that class. There’s a lot of wisdom that can be gained from doing more than just sitting in class and day dreaming. Befriending your teachers can open so many great doors if you really listen, not to mention it could possibly help your grade when you find out you are failing. Of course you will always be made fun of for being a teacher's pet, but it really is worth it.

4. Be friends with everyone

This sentiment is not literal and not directed at social butterflies. Trying to stretch yourself too thin will end up making you feel lonelier than when you only had a few friends. In middle school, you hated almost everyone that wasn’t your best friend, but in high school, people for the most part, aren’t your enemy. In fact, the people you end up hating will most likely be someone you considered your best friend. Because of this, it’s good to be kind to everyone you meet when your group of friends “who will be together forever” falls apart. You will have to learn how to make friends with everyone you meet or you’ll end up eating lunch by yourself. You don’t have to swear your life to them, but a friendly smile and no cold shoulder when you have to do pair work is the easiest way to achieve that.

5. Enjoy it while it lasts

Despite that it felt like the last four years of high school dragged on and on, it wasn’t a week after I graduated I was sobbing on my floor, desperately wishing to go back. The tight group of friends I had made those four years were all now either out of state or working so we could never see each other. You never realize how friendships change once you aren’t seeing someone every single day. All those football games attended, hangouts after school, class projects done together, and drama dealt with are memories in the making. Yes, most of us hated high school and all the drama that came with it, but try to enjoy these small moments in the next four years, because you’ll never get them back.