Starting any year of high school can be overwhelming, but the start of freshman year especially can often feel like too much to handle. On top of reentering school after a 3 month break from learning, you’re entering a new building, with a new schedule and new expectations and new people and it feels like you’re expected to just figure it out after a few days of introduction and some informational videos. It’s hard, and I know from experience it can often feel like you’re spending all of your time just trying to navigate the complexities of the new experience instead of actually finding the joy in it. If you want to start your high school career off on the right foot, this article will lay out some advice from seniors for how to start not only your freshman year, but your high school career as a whole off well.

Talk to Your Teachers: Few things will help you get oriented faster in the dizzying experience of beginning high school than just building a positive relationship with your teachers. For some, that might be daunting, but doing so can be as simple as participating in class or as direct as having a one-on-one conversation about your goals and limits for the year– no matter what, it will not only help you get on the right track academically but help anchor you and provide the foundation for a great next few years. Knowing your teachers well will make you feel more comfortable asking for advice on the daily, which will help you more than any overarching piece of advice I can give you. Plus, if you have a positive relationship with all of your teachers, that’s at least 7 people you know you can ask for directions when you inevitably get lost in the building your first week here.

Challenge Yourself: When going into freshman year, it can often feel like you’re already wading in unfamiliar waters, which can make it hard to want to venture into deeper, riskier territory. That’s completely understandable, but at the same time, there’s a good chance you’re not giving yourself enough credit! I’ve heard multiple stories from upperclassmen who say that they wished they’d tried harder things and taken more honor classes in their underclassmen years. Take those harder classes, push yourself, because you never know the limits of your potential until you try them! Growing as a learner now as an underclassman instead of later in your high school career will allow you even more time to excel as a student and learner later down the line. Of course, taking those harder classes in freshman year might not be for everyone, and that’s okay, but if you feel like you can do it, feel free to go for it!

Get Involved: Join a club! There are so many different clubs and organizations that always need new members, and freshman year is as good a time as any to do so. Clubs and other extracurriculars are the best places to make friends with interests similar to you and hone those interests in a group environment, whether that interest be a sport, a hobby, or a specific cause you want to advocate for. As for the people who might be more hesitant to get involved, I get it! I didn’t either for the first two years, save for 2 movie reviews I wrote for this paper. I’ve always hated when people say “just try new things” or “get out there and do it!” as the end all be all of advice. The idea that obstacles can simply be ignored and objectives can simply be accomplished by just “doing it” does nothing to solve or even acknowledge the very real issues that might limit people from chasing their goals, whether those issues be societal, mental, or otherwise. At the same time, the simple, inevitable, obvious, unfortunate truth is that you can’t get anywhere without trying. So, if you have an interest or hobby, and if you want to find a community of people who share that with you, join a club! If there’s something stopping you, find a way to do it in your own way; put your needs first, but try to do it nonetheless. If you’re afraid of trying new things, try to do it afraid! No matter what, I can promise you that getting involved will help both acclimate you socially, and help to develop and express your passions and interests.

Don’t Burn Out: Listen: I believe in the advice I’ve given here, but that doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong if you don’t follow it to a T. It’s no accident that this is the longest paragraph here. Ultimately, it’s important to not place so much pressure on yourself to have “the best first year of high school possible” because no matter what, you’ll have three more years after this where you’ll be more comfortable and more confident in yourself and your environment. If you feel you can follow all of these pieces of advice with ease, that’s great for you! But, if you’re having trouble, prioritize getting yourself adjusted first. Stress is an inevitable part of high school, but it shouldn’t be the whole experience, especially when you’re still trying to figure out what that experience even is for you. It’s necessary to consider what you can balance at the moment before you end up spinning a thousand tops that you’re not able to keep up. Truthfully, I didn’t follow the above advice my freshman year as much as I probably could’ve, and looking back, I wish I had, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to do those things when I was finally ready. Take it at your own pace. Every piece of advice teachers or students like me give you may help build a strong foundation for your experience down the line, but if that doesn’t fit in your schedule right now, the clubs and the teachers and the challenges will still be possible for you next semester or next year. Push yourself out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself, yes, but doing so to a harmful extent will only make you resent the very idea of pushing yourself. At the end of the day, the best advice I can give to freshmen looking for direction in their first year of high school is this: be nice to yourself, because you’ll get to the end no matter what.