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As someone who is halfway through my junior year, I've heard dozens of opinions about the journey of high school and have formed my own strong feelings about each year myself. Experience depends greatly on the person; for some the 4 years blend together while others feel as if time stands still for each and every semester they are in the classroom.
Despite this variance in experience there has become cultural stereotypes regarding each year. From the 'light' freshman year to the exhausting junior year, I will share my own thoughts along with those of my peers regarding the timeline of high school.
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Frankly, I found freshman year possibly the worse year of my high school career. I was unprepared for the jump in the difficulty in course load as I began taking my first honors class. Having never done an extracurricular aside from a club called Green Team in middle school, the seven hour per week (not including weekends and football games) practice for marching band seemed impossible. I experienced a huge amount of anxiety as it was the first time I had to actually study in order to get good grades, and I felt like a failure as a struggled to keep up with my peers.
It felt similar to the feeling of moving from Colorado to California where the math was so much harder than that of Colorado’s. Halfway through third grade in Colorado I’d yet to master my times tables through 10, but in California everyone else was having competitions multiplying all the way up to 14. I’ve still never learned my times tables after 10. In sum, I just felt like a fish out of water freshman year.
It is important to note however the wide majority of my friends found freshman year easy. As my friend Kaylee once put it:
“Freshman year was so light! I was losing brain cells!”
Many sites stress during freshman year was because of changes in social circles and academics.
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Smooth Sophomore Year
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Many people cite sophomore year as the second worse year of high school as the classes get harder and friends groups evolve into more secular groups as students begin to really hone into their interests. For me personally, I found sophomore year a really fun year because I had a diverse set of classes.
While many argue that taking classes focused on your interests is the most important, I strongly disagree. I would recommend taking the hardest classes you feel comfortable with, keeping in mind the sort of people who choose those classes as well. For example, I joined a Bio-Med program which was filled with many nerdy, introverted people, but balanced it out by continuing taking band.
Taking harder classes, especially APs are really useful to take sophomore year as it builds up your abilities to handle a large course load and prepares you for junior year. Furthermore, sophomore year should be a chance to explore extracurriculars. The only regret I’ve had so far in my high school career was not taking a junior’s advice on joining the wrestling team, because again it would have diversified who I hung out with.
Jittery Junior Year
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Junior year is a very mixed year from my experience. While feeling the anxiety of a fast-approaching graduation and the strain of college/AP classes, junior year also has its upsides. Many athletes, artists, and performer experience a huge maturity growth in their abilities.
For example, my friend Grace, who runs cross country, beat her personal record this year by more than 20 seconds on the mile. Another friend, Alexa has begun to work on her first ever wall mural, an honor given to talented painters at my school. This abrupt change has been nicknamed by many the "junior jump."
Along with this, however, are the downsides. In this period of high school, things start to get really fast, from seeking out internships to comparing GPAs everything seems to get a lot more competitive and a lot more stressful. I’ve noticed this in many aspects of my life, even down to my face which has begun to develop more acne than ever.
The important thing is to set priorities. What do you care about? What tasks, classes, or responsibilities can you put aside to accomplish your goals, at least temporarily. That is what I’ve learned from my junior year.
Sleepy Senior Year
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Senior year, from my understanding is definitely the lightest year, although you have college apps during the first semester, once you get accepted into a college/university, it is simply a matter of keeping grades up. While extracurricular remain stressful, you are practically an adult and therefore can handle it. Overall as you get more developed in your high school career in my experience it gets easier as you become more mature and ready to take on all the challenges it has to offer.
Conclusion
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Overall, high school is a period of time where you have more freedom to explore your interests and develop into an adult. Every person experiences different challenges each year and mine is just one of many. It's important to remember that just because a class or a sport is easy for someone else doesn't mean it will be easy for you. As long as you put 100% into what you're passionate about, you will leave high school feeling ready for college or wherever life may take you.
