Freshman year: a time for exploration and building good habits

Graphic by Isabelle Wang

The transition from middle to high school is a tough one.

Walking onto campus can be overwhelming as an incoming freshman: A large and unfamiliar school, sometimes towering upperclassmen and identical-looking hallways. Then comes the mad dash to the cafeteria at the end of 2nd or 4th period and a sea of students jostling for position in line. To say that it’s chaotic would be an understatement.

Don’t worry too much — we’ve been there and survived. Now as sophomores, here are some of our tips to make your new high school experience better.

Time management: balance work and play

The biggest and most difficult difference between middle school and high school is the workload and expectations of your teachers. Gone are the days when teachers always remind you about an assignment and hold your hand through the process of completing it; instead, you’re now expected to work more independently and meet deadlines. If not, you risk a drop in your grade.

This more serious atmosphere makes time management a super important skill to master early. Keep in mind that procrastination will be your biggest enemy as a student. To beat it, you first need to identify what is your biggest distraction. You can enlist the help of your friends. For example, you can make your friends delete Instagram for you, or ask them to put a Screen Time limit on iOS and give them the password.

It may sound drastic, but once you realize how much time you’ve spent on your social media platforms or games or other distractions, you’ll understand how you can use that time for something more productive.

Teachers often ease you into the first semester of freshman year, but in second semester, many courses like math have a step up in difficulty, which means you’ll need to manage your time wisely to get your work done.

Luckily, the alternating Red and Blue Day schedule gives you time to get your assignments done, but it’s also easy to become a habitual procrastinator. Our tip is to just get your homework done as soon as possible because the next Blue Day is much sooner than you think. One day to do homework can very well turn into a measly hour after sports, extracurriculars and a much-needed 8 hours of sleep swallow much of your day.

Explore what’s offered

With fewer academic pressures, it’s the perfect time to join a club or a sports team. You can start understanding what your interests are and build some strong friendships along the way.

Joining a sport is one of the best extracurriculars you could do. While exercising, you learn lifetime skills that’ll guide you far beyond high school and even college. Being a team player is useful in many applications, including research teams and future employment.

With the plethora of clubs offered, there’s no limit to what you can explore. Want to help your community? Join the Red Cross Club. Want to argue? Join  the debate team. Do you like working with technology and your hands? Join robotics. The truth is that you never know what a club is about until you join their meetings.

Get out there and learn some new things.

Good news: You’re a freshman

The good and bad news is that freshman year is one of your least stressful years of high school. You still have the time to explore and navigate through the winding path of high school, and grades don’t matter quite as much as they will later. That’s why it’s crucial to set down good habits and dispose of the bad ones, especially when it comes to time management. Enjoy your time (while you still have it).