Freshman advice from your Life editors: We only take L’s in life (with) style

Elicia Ye:

Like I did as a freshman, you might think you have a long four years ahead. Yet as a senior looking back on my own freshman year, I can’t put into words how quickly the past three years have flown by.

High school is an arduous adventure with more downs than ups, but its invigorating experiences will be so incredibly transformative — so brace yourself for an amusement park ride full of twists and turns.

If three years ago someone told me I would be spending a huge chunk of my time senior year working on newspaper and running clubs, I would not have believed them. As much as I love planning, I couldn’t have anticipated every step of my journey, so I hope you don’t stress too much about what is coming your way either. Don’t worry about your junior year classes or your major — my friends going off to college are still “undecided.”

You are freshmen. You have limited time, but you also have ample room to grow, to push your limits, to take risks. Join activities you have always wanted to try out, and attend after-school events to support your friends. Because once you become a senior, you’ll find yourself scrambling to make memories and cherishing your “lasts”: last Back to School Night, last all-school BBQ, last quad day.

In hindsight, maybe I should have pondered what I wanted out of high school upon stepping foot on campus, but I am happy where I’ve ended up. I hope you could say the same as well in three years.

Stay ama21ng, freshies, and make the most of your time here. Senioritis is real, so I’ll check in with you later.

-E.Y.

Vivien Zhang

When I first entered high school as a freshman, I was anxious and genuinely didn’t know what to expect. More stress? Meaner teachers? Or endless days of adventure? Looking back now, I honestly still can’t come to a proper conclusion; high school was a confusing mix of emotions, but I’m sad it’s almost coming to an end.

I can tell you right now that the short four years you’ll be at Saratoga High won’t always be full of fun experiences.

As a freshman, you’ll probably underestimate how large the jump from middle school to high school is and fall behind on work. As a sophomore, you’ll probably be stressing about your first-ever AP classes and studying for your SATs. As a junior, you’ll probably be frantically searching for college majors you’re interested in and worrying about making good impressions on your teachers for recommendation letters.

And somewhere in the middle, you’ll probably experience a mental breakdown, but that’s when you need to pick yourself up and remember that after all you’ve gone through, there's no reason to give up now.

High school shouldn’t only be a burden weighing you down and preventing you from doing the things you find fun. Being a freshman is exciting. You have more time and leisure to explore clubs and activities, try out for sports and dress up wildly for spirit days. High school is the time to make memories because it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

In the end, if you don’t enjoy yourself in high school, you’ll never get another chance to interact with new people, participate in Homecoming dances and skits, find new passions and running around in the journalism room editing and writing stories because you’re lazy and forgot about the deadlines 🙂 What matters the most is: what do you want out of high school? Don’t worry about others; you do you.

– V.Z.