By: Saaniah Hardy  

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My time at North Springs is ending, I’m a senior, I guess you can call me old now. Instead of back pain and bad knees, I have scholarships and college acceptance letters. All 12 years of my school career so far have led me to my next big step. 

High school is where you start to find yourself, starting your career path. After high school will you go to college for a degree, serve in the military, or start working right away. The transition from high school to the real world is one I don’t think anyone can be prepared for. Some of us have known the people in our graduating class all 12 years, others just barely a year. 90% of the people we’ll go to college with will be strangers.  

As a senior the counseling department has asked us to fill out a survey. Two questions on this survey hit me the hardest. Even though, my senior year was irregular, I still want to pass down some advice for underclassmen and rising seniors. 

1. Based on your high school experience, what positive/helpful advice would you give to freshman about high school?  

2. Based on your senior year experience, what positive/helpful advice would you give to rising seniors about senior year of the college application/decision process? 

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Based on my high school experience, what positive/helpful advice would I give to freshman about high school?  

I’ll give you two things; they may not be 100% positive to you, but they are helpful to know. 

1. Don’t depend on your friends. You may have 20 friends as a freshman, then only have 2 as a senior. That is completely fine, understand that your life path might be different from the next person. You can’t stay dependent on your friends to help or support your goals. 

Friends are great to have, but sometimes they can be controlling and make you lose sight of your goals. The metaphor that I’ve been hearing lately is the one about planes. They say in case of an emergency, help yourself first than help someone else who needs it. Follow that, help your goals before you help someone else. 

2. High school is a lot, you have a ton of work along with your personal life. Don’t spend all your time on your schoolwork. It’ll be there when you get back, focus on being a kid while it lasts. 4 years go by fast, faster than you think.  

Freshmen understand that you may feel grown and might want to be grown but take advantage of your childhood. You have your whole life to work and learn as you go. Don’t let your childhood be taken away by schoolwork. I wish I didn’t have my head in my notes and schoolwork all these 4 years. I missed some of my childhood worrying about my grades. 

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Based on your senior year experience, what positive/helpful advice would you give to rising seniors about senior year of the college application/decision process? 

Juniors, college is right around the corner. A year goes by fast, have everything done or mostly done by December. I waited to cross important things off my college to-do list and it was a mistake. My advice for you is as follows;  

1. Don’t wait until January. It’s harder to find scholarships in the months after for seniors. I wish I listened to my AVID teacher telling me start my junior year. It might be a lot to do first semester but it makes your transition way better.  

Focus on college applications and scholarships more than your high school work. Don’t fail, and don’t get senioritis. It just makes things way worse. End your high school career with a bang. But focus on the bigger picture. 

2. Find and follow a great time management schedule for you that works.  

Senior year breaks you. I stayed up until 3 some nights doing schoolwork because I have a bad schedule. After school I take an hour break then I’m right on scholarships. I spend my evens with my family and leave my schoolwork until night fall. 

3. Focus on your mental health. 

I told the freshmen to focus on life, please do the same. 

Listen to your big sisters and brothers that are leaving with the class of 2021. There are a few of us who are trying to help you succeed.