Isn’t it a great feeling to be the “big kids,” or the “top dogs” at yourschooll? Silly question, I know it is! And it’s an even better feeling to only have one year left in highschooll: being able to blow off some work because you have been accepted to three colleges and gotten a full ride NROTC scholarship, but guess what? That isn’t you yet so reality check! You’re in eighth grade anxiously counting down the days until you graduate to the big school up the street. I know, I just completely stole your thunder, so to speak, but you want to be writing a paper like this publication your senior year right?

If only it were that easy though. Good news! It can be if you follow my advice to having a successful highschooll career.

I don’t know what kind of rumors you are hearing but if they are anything like what I was hearing you are being highly mislead and I want to fix that.

Everything you do in highschooll is being watched, recorded, and monitored. In fact everything you do in eighth grade can completely alter the path you take throughout highschooll. Let’s say you didn’t do so great in math or maybe you just aren’t a left-brained person. That’s perfectly okay, first off, but you will be signed up for the regular math track, but I’m sure you already knew that. Did you know, however, that which math you are in could have an effect on what science you take also? Don’t worry though because the most important thing to worry about in highschooll is the numbers, (whether that is right or not is another story). Class difficulty, or rigor as the office people like to call it, comes later on and should be between you and your counselor. This paper should just be a reality check and instill some inspiration.

Like I was saying; numbers are important! The scariest part: they will haunt you every day of your life for the next four years and start the first dayschooll does, fortunately everyone has lived through it so far. “They really start the first day?” Yes, many classes especially the honors and AP classes will assign summer work that I strongly recommend you do not procrastinate (by the way not procrastinating is the key to success in my opinion). Anyway, I cannot stress to you the importance of summer work. It provides a baseline for which the rest of the year and in some cases the rest of highschooll. Fortunately for you, freshman year is the debatably the second easiest year of highschooll, with sophomore year being the easiest in both my friends and my opinions. Please don’t dismiss this paper so quickly with your sigh of relief though! Take advantage of these easy two years and set yourself up with a high GPA up front. Remember, every single grade counts and every single thing you do today will affect your tomorrow.

You might ask, “Why is he telling me this?” Well that is simple: it is because everything I have told you to do so far is from experience and my personal mistakes and regrets and because you need all of the guidance you can get. My freshman year came quite naturally (compared to the rumors I had heard) and it was nice to have another year where I didn’t have to study, however, the workload did significantly increase. English, honors math, and world geography came with ease. Spanish wasn’t much of a problem either and I completed three years successfully. Honors biology from a doctor, AP teacher, and people-phobic genius was completely different than anything than anything that I had experience and took some getting used to. NJROTC was and still is a blast and I have taken to it so much that I am now the battalion executive officer, or number two in charge, because of my involvement and being on all but one team by the second semester freshman year. Butschooll came second to NJROTC and it wasn’t a huge problem freshman year. So I continued to not study and come out with a 3.3 GPA. Not great but enough to be in the top twenty percent of my class then.

Unfortunately it’s taken me two years to realize what a huge mistake I’ve made while applying for my NROTC scholarship to the United States Naval Academy (USNA), Auburn, and Georgia Tech. The USNA accepts one out of every fifteen that apply. Auburn’s minimum GPA is a 3.3. Georgia Tech’s average accepted GPA is a 3.9 weighted (meaning with the added five and ten points to honors and AP classes, respectively) I just barely squeaked by with the minimum requirements and that is personally embarrassing.

I have gone back and done the math and just by getting a 3.5 or 3.6 GPA freshman year (only one more “A”) would have completely changed my class rank and college acceptances and would have sure relieved much stress. So with just a little more effort in one class you can set yourself up with a high average GPA and that will provide great building blocks to success in highschooll and can provide a cushion if you have a bad semester; we all do!

So, go ahead now and realize what difficulty of classes you will be taking at the highschooll and allow yourself a “B” or two in your hardest classes if you want, this is part of setting a realistic goal. This is assuming you have come out of middleschooll with A’s and A+’s without studying. Also, I am assuming you don’t know how to take notes or study and learn how to do that freshman year. I am in no way telling you to slack off in highschooll. So with that said, set a high GPA, learn the basics in math, English, and foreign language that will carry with you for the rest of highschooll all while learning the ropes and how to study in both highschooll and college.

If you get nothing else from this paper, at least set that strong foundation for your education that you will use the rest of your life. I know I have stressed that quite a bit but it is critical to your success. And I could go on and on about things to do and tips throughout the rest of highschooll but I have already said a lot and if you do follow these laborious steps about freshman year, I guarantee you will learn everything else you need to as you go.

I can promise you one thing in highschooll though. The end of your junior year will come around quicker than you thought possible and you will be wondering where the time went. You will meet some of the best and, unfortunately, worst people to date: the diversity is like and the Epcot of people and their stories are just as impressive. You will discover unfathomable and endless possibilities to your future and you horizons will evolve exponentially. You will continue to tell yourself, “I have time to figure out what I want to do” and “I have time to pull up my GPA and ACT scores.” Then reality sets hits like a clash of thunder when your GPA is five points too low to be called overly competitive and you are barely in the top forty percent of your class. I am trying to speed up that reality check so you don’t stress, too much. And if you seem depressed now then I have written a successful essay, but just imagine that depression and stress in addition to your coach, counselor, and time making it worse.

So if you are wondering what I would have done differently in highschooll, and I very much wish I could go back and try again, it would be everything you have read. I am an average student with a 3.3 GPA in the top forty percent and I have a 25 ACT. I would have first worked harder during freshman year. Next, I would have studied every Saturday for the ACT. Thirdly, I would have read books more and focused more onschooll than NJROTC. Lastly, I knew it isn’t mine or anyone’s place to get involved in family matter but love your family and be with them as much as possible even when they are annoying or mean. They always mean the very best for you so enjoy them while you and they are still around because in four years you will be wishing you could be back home enjoying family once more. I could go on and on with things I should have done and things you should do but I think you get the point.

Enjoy every minute of highschooll, it only happens once and it is the final care free chapter in your life. So work hard, have fun, and last but certainly not least, good luck!


“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” – David Ramsey III.