Reflecting on My High School Experience: Anecdotes and Advice

I recently graduated from high school, and have had some time to reflect on the past four years of my life. These years have been filled with valuable lessons, wonderful memories, and significant personal growth. I thought I would revisit some of the most notable parts of my high school experience in the hopes that it might be helpful to someone about to embark upon their own.

When I first began grade nine, I was very focused on academics. I have always prioritized doing my best in school and since the beginning of high school was a shift to a new learning environment, I really wanted to make sure that I kept up. High school definitely seemed intimidating: I had fewer, but longer, classes than in grade eight; I was faced with new and unfamiliar teachers; and for the first time in my life, I had to worry about exams. However, once I was immersed in this new environment, I realized that it was much more manageable than I had initially perceived it to be.

The best advice that I could give to new high schoolers concerned about academics is to stay on top of your work, as this will make it easier in the long run. This applies both to each year in isolation, and to the four years as a whole.

Each year, if you make sure to learn all the information in your classes as it is being taught, you simply have to remind yourself of what you already learned when it is exam time. In terms of high school as a whole, if you develop good academic habits in your earlier years, you will be better prepared for the later years. Many people say that grade nine and ten do not matter because universities and colleges do not look at your marks from these grades. While these marks may not be as important as your grade eleven and twelve marks, applying yourself in these years to build a good academic foundation will make it easier to achieve good marks later on.

If I could change one thing about my grade nine experience, I would have gotten more involved in the school. While I did participate in a few sports and activities, I did not do any extracurriculars that I was particularly passionate about, which caused me to feel disconnected from my school.

All of this changed in grade ten. After developing an interest in theatre through a drama class I was taking, I began to get involved with extracurricular drama at school. I joined the dance club and became more deeply involved with the ski team by helping out with our team sweaters. Belonging to clubs and teams that I was actually excited about really made me feel like I was a part of my school community and it truly became a place that I looked forward to going to each day. I would absolutely recommend getting involved with extracurricular activities that you are interested in. It’s a fantastic way to make school more fun and engaging, and it also brings you together with so many more people than you would meet just from your classes. I had expected to make most of my new friends in grade nine, simply because at that point everyone was new to the school. In reality, I met far more people once I got more involved and continued to make great friends by joining clubs and groups throughout high school.

Due in part to my newfound passions and involvement, I personally found grade ten to be a year of massive personal growth and self-discovery. Grade ten and grade eleven, were, without a doubt, my favourite years of high school. Both of these years allowed me time to explore the things that I was excited about, learn more about myself, and build wonderful relationships with others.

At my school, I was able to choose more electives in grade ten and eleven and I had the chance to take some really interesting courses including Latin and photography. In grade eleven, I became even more involved at school by joining the newly created arts council, helping to create even more performances with the drama club, and landing a role in the school play. These activities were such important and enjoyable parts of that year and I will always look back on them fondly. In addition, my grade eleven year was when I truly got involved with volunteering outside of my school community. Involvement within your school is fantastic, but it is also amazing getting to give back to the outside community. It can really give you a new perspective and help you build important life skills; it is something I would definitely recommend.

Finally, this past year, I completed grade twelve. While it was definitely very challenging at times, I certainly learned a lot about life and about myself. There is a lot to be done in grade twelve. Personally, I had a full course load each semester and was also working on university and scholarship applications for the first few months of school. If you are planning on going to university or college, I would recommend starting to look at schools, programs, and applications as soon as possible. I didn’t find any of the application processes to be difficult; however, they do require a lot of paperwork, involve strict deadlines, and can be very time consuming. In terms of grade twelve academics, I did find most of my courses to have fairly heavy workloads.

A piece of advice I would give anyone selecting their courses for grade twelve is to not take any courses that you do not need for a future university or college program or that you are not otherwise really interested in. Your final year of high school will be demanding, so if you have opportunities to engage in subjects and activities which you enjoy, take those opportunities.

The highlight of my grade twelve year was directing my school play, an incredible experience from which I gained so much. It was something that I was involved with purely because I wanted to be and it served as a great creative outlet throughout the year. On the whole, grade twelve was one of the most difficult, but also one of the most rewarding years of my high school career.

At the end of the day, high school will be different for everyone. I learned so much about myself and the world around me; I will always reflect fondly upon both the ups and the downs of high school and how they have shaped me as a person. To anyone who is entering high school: best of luck, work hard, have fun, and believe that high school, and life itself, have exciting, unexpected, and wonderful ways of all coming together in the end!