Guide to High School
A guide to everything they don’t tell you about high school
Story By: Jefferson Donald
“This is not what I was told,” you think to yourself. You were told that high school is pretty simple. Go to your classes, do the work, and do your best, right? Wrong. How are you supposed to get to your classes if there’s plenty of people blocking the way? How are you supposed to do the work if you can’t even figure out what it’s talking about? “Do your best” doesn’t help with this either. It doesn’t get you that “A” grade you want.
Hey, do you wanna know a secret? All of us upperclassmen have been there. Yes, us, the ones you may or may not look up to. We’ve struggled in the past. A few of us have decided to tell you how we’ve struggled, how to avoid it, and have written it all into this little guide. We’ve struggled before, so you don’t have to struggle now.
So, wanna learn how to make high school a heck of alot easier? Read on.
Things We Had to Figure Out Ourselves
Little intimations that no one told us about
It’s really easy to become overwhelmed in high school. With all of these new classes, difficult assignments, people, teachers (the list goes on and on), sometimes you just really want to collapse. We’ve all been there. You just don’t want to do anything for a couple of days, weeks, months. You start having negative thoughts and ideas. We’re here to tell you that it’s okay. Trust us, it only gets harder from there, but it will also get better. You just have to have the right mindset.
Things That Have Made High School Much Easier
From the little things to the big things
There’s always people there to support you, you just have to find them. For a lot of us, that may be our parents. Or maybe our brother or sister. There’s always someone around that you can count on. If it’s not someone in your family, then maybe it’s one of your friends. If it’s not one of your friends, then we can guarantee that there’s a teacher here that cares for you. It’s just a matter of you reaching out to them, or responding when they reach out to you.
Always study, and set reminders for projects. This one is one of the most important things about high school. If you don’t plan or study, you’re going to forget when that homework is supposed to be due. You’re going to forget about that quiz you have on Friday. You’re going to forget about the test and bomb it. Don’t do that. So don’t risk it by not even studying. Study every night for at least 15 minutes on each subject, not just when there’s a test coming up. Trust us, your brain will thank you in the long run.
Other Advice From Us to YouJoin a club or sport. This ties into our support tip earlier on in this guide. You’ll make some new friends there, you’ll grow close to your coach or club leader, and you’ll have something to look forward to after school. Whenever things get bad, you’ll have friends to fall back on. You’ll be surrounding yourself with positive, supportive people that you can depend on later.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions -- there are no dumb questions. Everyone has been there. The teacher asks if anyone has questions, and you have one, but you’re too scared to ask. What if people think I’m stupid? Whatever reason you have to not answer a question, get rid of it. If you don’t ask that question, then your grade is going to suffer for it. If you don’t want to ask it in front of the whole classroom, that’s cool. Ask the teacher after they sit down. Just make sure you get the question out of your system, and pay attention when they’re giving the answer.
Don’t change yourself based on someone else’s standards, just be yourself. This one may be a bit cheesy, but it’s true. There’s definitely someone at this school like you, you just have to find them. Like it was mentioned earlier, join a club based off of activities you like. If you like Dungeons & Dragons, there’s an after-school club for that. Like Robotics? There’s a club for that. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’ll find someone who likes you for you if you’re just yourself.
“This is not what I was told,” you think to yourself. You were told that high school is pretty simple. Go to your classes, do the work, and do your best, right? Wrong. How are you supposed to get to your classes if there’s plenty of people blocking the way? How are you supposed to do the work if you can’t even figure out what it’s talking about? “Do your best” doesn’t help with this either. It doesn’t get you that “A” grade you want.
Hey, do you wanna know a secret? All of us upperclassmen have been there. Yes, us, the ones you may or may not look up to. We’ve struggled in the past. A few of us have decided to tell you how we’ve struggled, how to avoid it, and have written it all into this little guide. We’ve struggled before, so you don’t have to struggle now.
So, wanna learn how to make high school a heck of alot easier? Read on.
Things We Had to Figure Out Ourselves
Little intimations that no one told us about
It’s really easy to become overwhelmed in high school. With all of these new classes, difficult assignments, people, teachers (the list goes on and on), sometimes you just really want to collapse. We’ve all been there. You just don’t want to do anything for a couple of days, weeks, months. You start having negative thoughts and ideas. We’re here to tell you that it’s okay. Trust us, it only gets harder from there, but it will also get better. You just have to have the right mindset.
Things That Have Made High School Much Easier
From the little things to the big things
There’s always people there to support you, you just have to find them. For a lot of us, that may be our parents. Or maybe our brother or sister. There’s always someone around that you can count on. If it’s not someone in your family, then maybe it’s one of your friends. If it’s not one of your friends, then we can guarantee that there’s a teacher here that cares for you. It’s just a matter of you reaching out to them, or responding when they reach out to you.
Always study, and set reminders for projects. This one is one of the most important things about high school. If you don’t plan or study, you’re going to forget when that homework is supposed to be due. You’re going to forget about that quiz you have on Friday. You’re going to forget about the test and bomb it. Don’t do that. So don’t risk it by not even studying. Study every night for at least 15 minutes on each subject, not just when there’s a test coming up. Trust us, your brain will thank you in the long run.
Other Advice From Us to YouJoin a club or sport. This ties into our support tip earlier on in this guide. You’ll make some new friends there, you’ll grow close to your coach or club leader, and you’ll have something to look forward to after school. Whenever things get bad, you’ll have friends to fall back on. You’ll be surrounding yourself with positive, supportive people that you can depend on later.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions -- there are no dumb questions. Everyone has been there. The teacher asks if anyone has questions, and you have one, but you’re too scared to ask. What if people think I’m stupid? Whatever reason you have to not answer a question, get rid of it. If you don’t ask that question, then your grade is going to suffer for it. If you don’t want to ask it in front of the whole classroom, that’s cool. Ask the teacher after they sit down. Just make sure you get the question out of your system, and pay attention when they’re giving the answer.
Don’t change yourself based on someone else’s standards, just be yourself. This one may be a bit cheesy, but it’s true. There’s definitely someone at this school like you, you just have to find them. Like it was mentioned earlier, join a club based off of activities you like. If you like Dungeons & Dragons, there’s an after-school club for that. Like Robotics? There’s a club for that. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’ll find someone who likes you for you if you’re just yourself.