As I approach junior year, I quickly realize how fast high school has gone by thus far. My first day of freshman year seems like yesterday, and just like that, it will all be over and I will be on my way to college. Because this point in my life will probably be the most stressful, yet the most exciting, I wanted to write a letter to my future self. As I get closer to all the things senior year has to offer, such as graduation and prom, I know for a fact that I will be busy thinking about the future and enjoying my last few moments with my friends and family before I begin the next chapter of my life. However, I believe it is necessary for me to take a moment to reflect back to this point of my life where I am completely unsure of how things will turn out, but I do have hopes and expectations for myself.

I hope I can look back on these last two years of high school and reassure myself that there has been absolutely nothing I regret doing, or regret not doing. Of course, taking rigorous advanced placement classes and having to study for hours every night hasn’t been fun, but I hope it all was worth it. I hope being in student government and representing my class throughout high school puts my name out there for colleges to see; I hope I wasn’t lied to when they said that being really involved in one club and sport is much better than being somewhat involved with many clubs and sports. I hope that during my senior game for softball I can look back and say that after those few years of sitting on the bench and doing stats on my coach’s iPad, I’m glad I never quit the team (maybe I’ll actually get to play these next two years). I hope I can look back and laugh at how dumb I was as an incoming freshman for actually believing the rumors of my school having a swimming pool on the third floor (there is no third floor).

I recall that during sophomore year I would have stress fits and cry at least once a week, whether it was over school, extra-curricular activities, or other things I had to deal with, which probably weren’t that big of a deal. I hope I can look back on those episodes and realize that they were all for nothing and that reacting in that manner is completely unnecessary when you want to succeed. I hope by then I have realized that stressing over the little things, which may seem huge at the moment, is absolutely pointless and a waste of energy. I have yet to realize that stressing out can be avoided, so I aspire for my senior-self to be a carefree and stress-free role model to myself as I’m writing this article as an incoming junior.

Although, stress is good, I think? Isn’t that the motivation I need to get into college?

As of right now, I stress a lot, and I’m not even going to lie about that. I tend to overthink the simplest of things and sometimes, I need the help from my loved ones to help me catch a breath and get a grip of reality. I hope that by the time I graduate I have learned that making a big deal out of virtually everything possible is just stressful and not needed.

Senior-self, please enlighten me. I hope all the stress that came with those many hours spent doing school work and studying for something that I don’t see myself ever pursuing in life was all worth it. Above all, though, I hope I can reflect and say that all my family members telling me that high school is the best four years of your life were right. I hope I can look back and say, “Wow, I managed to do all that AND maintain my social life.” I hope I had the best high school experience possible and as I look back at it, I wouldn’t change a thing.