Do Better Than I Did — High School

Push yourself to your actual limits

Throughout high school, I always strived to conserve my energy, while conserving energy has led to success in many ways, I’ve found that I could have done so much more and I had more success if I simply pushed myself more.

A’s aren’t everything especially if course rigor isn’t there

Despite receiving all A’s as of now in my second half of high school, I was rejected from the University of Florida. From this, I learned that A’s are not everything, especially if you are taking easier classes. As I stated before, push yourself and aim unbelievable high with courses and goals outside of school, you’ll get there!

Do more outside of school and search for opportunities

Not all of your extracurriculars have to be with school, search for opportunities outside of school. For example, over quarantine, I found an opportunity to help build an app that helps fight Covid and is used by the state of Arizona. You truly never know where you will end up if you don’t try! Many opportunities emerge from reaching out to people on social media and it all starts with searching.

Make it a game

Gamifying, especially with grades was essential to my success in high school. I learned that the best way for myself to learn is with practice tests and competing against myself or others. Another aspect of gamifying is having achievable goals such as completing 20 minutes worth of study material or receiving a B on the practice test. A major part of my improvements on the SAT, for example, was my drive to log hours studied and beat my hours studied from the previous week.

Have an end goal and a path to it

Throughout high school, I never had a specific end goal in mind, I simply went day to day, trying to get through the day. It wasn’t until time began creeping up in my Junior year where I began setting goals. Once I began to set goals, I noticed an immediate improvement in my grades. However, I should have been more specific in my goals, such as striving to be accepted into a certain university. While my goals were short-term and beneficial, such as getting straight A’s, I now realize that even more specific and larger goals would help even more.

Create stability

Stability is by far the most important factor to success in high school, I’ve experienced the worst drops in my academic performance and happiness when things became unstable, which was very frequent. I’ve attended three different high schools, and each school presented immense instability, from adapting to the norms at each school, to making friends, among other personal things in my life. When I found stability with learning to code, my grades flourished. Other ways to stabilize include making friends, joining a sport or a club. Stability is the most important factor in maintaining grades and your wellbeing.

TLDR

You have an opportunity in front of you and you must take it. High school is a part of your life that you only experience once, make it an experience to remember for all the right reasons. Remember to push yourself, search for opportunities, have an end goal in mind with a plan, and importantly, stabilize yourself.