Students at the Freshman Campus are getting ready for the next step. Going from middle school to high school was hard, but being a new kid in a second new high school is just as nerve wracking. A year of high school under their belt doesn’t make going to an unfamiliar school with older kids any easier.

With the 2022-2023 school year ending, it is time for the students in the Freshman Campus to make the move to the Upper Campus. The task of moving from one school to another is never easy, and not everyone has an older sibling to pass on some words of advice. Seniors from the Upper Campus have some last bits of advice to share in order to help make the upcoming year more enjoyable. Not only that, but reflecting is one of the best ways to make the most of the rest of high school. 

MCHS Senior, Megan Depauw thinks an important part of being in high school is being able to put oneself out there and being a part of different groups. “Do something that’s a part of the school,” she says. “You will meet some amazing people and make some really cool friends, and probably have a lot of fun.”

In school, clubs are an important part of the social aspect of school. Many people may think that academics are the most important part of high school. While this is true, and they are the main portion, it is important that academics aren’t the only thing that students take away from high school. 

Senior Heather Dombrowski finds that this balance is one of the most important things to achieve in high school. “Avoid getting behind because then you’ll end up being more stressed,” she says. “Try to stay on top of your work. Another thing is grades don’t define you, as long as you try your best that’s all that matters.”

A balance between academics and the social aspects of high school is the hardest to achieve. Some people have a tendency to focus too much on the social aspects and others focus too much on academics and forget to be a teenager.

Katie McLaughlin, a senior at MCHS’s Upper Campus states, “One thing I’d like underclassmen to know is to chill out. A lot of people I know and myself took school too seriously and didn’t hang outside of school. I wish I took school less seriously in order to just be a teenager.”

Not only are clubs, activities, and academics important parts of high school, there are general hardships that come with the life of a teenager. There’s overall growth, popularity, relationships, all of which come with being in high school; more accurately, they all come with being a teenager. 

“Don’t follow the crowd,” senior Tagan Gize states, “Underclassmen shouldn’t feel pressured to go to prom, date in high school, or try to gain popularity, to name some examples. It’s a bit cliched, but I think it needs to be stressed.”

Paired with the pangs of the teenage years, high school gets hard. There are a lot of things that end up on peoples’ plates. One of the biggest and most stressful things to come out of high school are the friendships. Whether they are lifelong or last a few weeks, high school friendships are a way for people to grow. 

Dombrowski found that even in the hard times of high school, some friendships run deeper than others. “Friends will come and go, especially in high school. You change and grow a lot in high school. You don’t have to surround yourself with a lot of people, just a couple of genuine, supportive friends is enough.”

With friends and family influences, high school becomes too much too fast. It gets overwhelming, anyone of any grade can confirm that. Though, seniors have done it the longest. Seniors have been in school for a long time, but high school is the time where they truly become themselves, and where the people around them also get to know themselves. 

Dombrowski has found one more thing that helped her get through not just highschool but all the hard things that come with being a teenager. “Make sure you choose what you want to do and not what everyone wants you to do.”