As I entered my freshman year at Temple City High School I thought these next four years would be a walk in the park, and I would have a lot of free time being able to relive my stress-free Oak years once again. Man, did I have something else coming.
During my first year I started off with two honors classes and a few extracurriculars, trying to adapt to high school, but I immediately realized I had underestimated the amount of work.
I found it difficult to balance clubs, friends, family, sports and my academic work, so I began to struggle. Ms. Brannum’s Honors Biology class gave me a wake up call as I began to receive grades I had never seen before. By the end of my first year of high school I had learned a lot about managing my time.
Progress takes time, and one must have patience, for progress is the first step of success. I had two choices after freshman year, which was to lay back on my course load and extracurriculars or give it another go my sophomore year. I decided to take classes I really liked that still challenged me at the same time and joined other organizations like Rampage and French Club to make my year more memorable.
My sophomore year was much better because, with the help of my friends who all had similar goals as me, I found the perfect balance of time. I was getting a good amount of sleep while maintaining a good GPA, and I became more outgoing with the spare time I had. I began to enjoy my extracurriculars, and everything I learned prepared me for the most dreaded time: junior year.
Junior year was a huge learning experience and pushed me to my limits. As sports and academics became more demanding, and with more responsibilities in clubs, I had many failures and successes. I do not regret the mistakes I made during this year especially in time management that led to procrastination and long nights of studying. These experiences will surely prove to be helpful in college and further in life.
Now as a partying senior that has already gone through the stressful admission process, I just continue to enjoy my last moments in high school with my peers as I prepare for the next chapter in my life.
My advice to incoming freshman is that there is no magic formula to getting into your dream college. It isn’t the college you go to that defines you, but what you do at that college. Don’t spend your entire four years stressing about college, but spend some time to enjoy yourself because high school is a blur.
In the fall I will embark on a new journey as I become a USC Trojan and pursue my engineering degree. I will once again face obstacles new and old. After my high school experiences, I realize that failure comes before success, and that instead of spending time dwelling on mistakes, learn from them and find the motivation to keep going forward.