As the 2023-2024 school year comes to a close, seniors are leaving their mark on the underclassmen. Whether its sports, academics, clubs, friendships or general life guidance, seniors are passing on advice. The Echo seniors have put together a short list of things we wish we knew going into high school.
Throughout all four years of high school it is so important to be nice to everyone. Specifically going into your senior year, you start spending more and more time with your grade. You may have grown up with them, befriended them, dated them even, making them your Park family and part of your support system. You don’t pick who’s in your grade but you have to get along with them because the connections you form are closer than you think. There are so many special senior traditions that bring everyone together such as powderpuff, decision day, skip day, senior overalls, other dress codes and more.
Academics are super important, but not important enough to sacrifice other aspects of life. Getting a bad grade doesn’t feel good but using it as motivation is what matters more. Keep in mind when signing up for classes that having a balanced schedule will take you further than a complicated and difficult schedule. Try and take classes you want and that you will be interested in and passionate about. Use your resources to further your education and gain extra support. Your teachers will eventually be writing you recommendations, becoming mentors and may even help you with your personal life.
Managing sports, academics and a social life is an exhausting but necessary task. Expecting to be able to manage your time perfectly throughout your years at Park is unrealistic. With that said, it is the learning curve that you need to go through to be able to manage your time past your high school years.
One thing that got all of us through our years at Park was involving ourselves in the school and community. Go to sports games even if you don’t like to watch sports, you’ll have more fun than you think. Joining clubs and sports build so many connections with people that you may have not otherwise met. These relationships are special because it allows you to connect with other grades and peers that you may not have been friends with before. Overall, it adds to the social experience in high school. All of these activities were rewarding for so many seniors and shaped their high school experience along with giving them additional life skills.
For senior year, applying to college is very overwhelming and stressful. If you are planning on applying to college, start thinking or writing your senior essay, picking a topic is super difficult so getting a head start is helpful. Researching will only help you and make you more confident when you do finally decide on a college. Also be sure to actually start checking your email super often, a lot of schools will send helpful information about applying to scholarships that you will only know about through emails. Deadlines may come sooner than you think so be sure to get them done while you can.
Finally the most important advice that we can give is to have fun. These years will fly by and you can’t get through it all without having fun. Spend time with your friends and family and just enjoy your high school life because it will be over before you know it.
