The first semester of my senior year was quite fun and developmental. I expanded my social skills, making new friends and experiences while in the process managing to balance different priorities and obligations. In my first three years of high school, I neglected my social life in favor of my academic success. Now, I have learned that striking a balance between the two is key to a fulfilling life.
This is what you need
I have become closer with my family, I have made new friends, and I have gotten good scholarships at a couple of universities that I am considering attending. Additionally, I have learned more about who I am as a person and what I wish to accomplish in the future.
As for advice I’d give to students transitioning into their senior year, I’d say keep your eye on the ball. Submitting a good college application and maintaining good grades is key and should take precedence over most things in your life, if you highly value your academics. Although there may be a bunch of fun events and you may feel FOMO (fear of missing out) often, it will undoubtedly be worth it in the end. There is always a chance to experience what you missed, anyways, and these insignificant high school ultimatums (“hangout with friends for the five billionth time or study for this important test”) will pale in comparison to the decisions you will have to make as an adult. Finally, some college stuff: apply to a couple of safeties. I would recommend talking to Mr. LaPorte in the career and services center about this, as he will point you in the right direction. Also, build a college list only of universities that you could see yourself attending and going to. Many of my friends are applying to ten billion colleges, even though they might not want to go to most of them. Think about it this way: if you only got into one college, and it is a college that you don’t like, then you’ll just be miserable for four years. If you only got into one college and you like every single college on your list, then you are setting yourself up for success. Also, apply to scholarships through universities, as these are the biggest. Mr. LaPorte can tell you more about these.
We all love Mr. LaPorte!
Most people hate writing college essays or scholarship applications. Personally, I have liked it because it has led to self-discovery. When colleges ask you “if you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?” or “where do you see yourself in ten years,” it really helps you decipher who you want to be in the future and why. Before the college application cycle, I never truly knew what I wanted to do with my life, or where to even start. Now, I have multiple options that interest me and I know what I want. Additionally, I have valued social connections more and more. I now realize that I can’t move forward in life on just my talents and skills. Likability and networking are king, and to be able to do that you need to be sociable and presentable.
Earlier in this blog, I spoke about having a balance between your social life and your academic life, remarking that I didn’t really put much thought into my social life earlier in high school. This semester, I wanted to change that, and did. One downside to this is that I may have been a little too social and not studious enough. Next semester, my goal isn’t to get good grades, but to be consistent in doing my homework on time and prioritizing my schoolwork over the other more insignificant things in life. Additionally, I have learned that being a perfectionist is okay, but being afraid of failure is not.
Flip your computer upside down to see the real image. Failure is great!
This semester, I should have done better in a lot of aspects related to my personal and academic life. In many ways, I have failed myself and those around me. Failure is simply a learning experience, and I am grateful for that. It is better to fail now than in college or the real world. In the past, I used to be a perfectionist in many ways, but now I think that the perfect is the enemy of the good— that is, if you focus on being perfect, then you’ll obsess over small details while missing the bigger picture of what is actually good.
I completely agree that striking a balance between social life and academic success is needed. I kind of was on the other side where I would socialize too much and not focus on my classes too much, but I changed that this semester and I can definitely see the changes. I love that one of your pieces of advice to the students transitioning into their senior year is to keep your eye on the ball. I think that so many seniors think that as soon as senior year starts, they can just not worry and just breeze through their classes. However, what they don’t realize is that some colleges actually look at your first-semester grades. I also completely agree that people should talk to Mr. Laporte about helping them make a list of universities. He will help you have target, reach, and safety schools and just make your process a lot easier. I find it interesting that you liked writing college essays because I can most definitely say that I did not like it. I just thought it was extremely tedious to do all of this work. Although I am unmotivated(not lazy), I still did my essays but I just thought they took so much of my time and I could have worked on school things otherwise.
Hi Ian! I relate so much to your reflection! For so many years I have also spent the majority of my time solely focusing on academics. I have pushed social opportunities away if I had to much homework or was worried about a test. But this year especially I have learned that this has not been healthy. This year my focus has been to learn how to balance my social life with my academic life. I have learned that it is ok to arrive to something late so I can study and still attend a social event. Although that sounds like the easiest solution, I am not joking it was the hardest thing for me to realize. Something else that I agree with is when you were saying that in the end academics are more importance than an average hangout with friends. But I don’t think this is the case always. I believe that academics will always come first but you need to have a life outside of the stress your academics. In order to do this, I have actually spent more time with my friends this year than I have in year prior. The more stressed I become, the more I feel like I need to have an outlet for that stress and my friends have always been a great outlet.
I flipped my computer upside down and the screen is shattered. What do I do next