As we near the end of the school year, juniors and seniors look toward their last years of high school. Throughout these years, they’ve learned new things about themselves and may have had regrets or wished they had done things differently in their first year.
Let’s see what advice our upperclassmen would give to future seniors!
Photos by Zoe Tran.
“I wish I took academics a little more seriously . . . [I] didn’t really think anything was that serious . . . There’s a lot of help out there if you are struggling and that everything will be okay . . . The teachers here really do care about you [and the] reality is, they’re trying to do their job and do their best and make you succeed,” senior Rachel Nguyen said. “Don’t be afraid to be yourself. I follow this advice every day as a senior and throughout a few of my years, I’ve used it and it has made me feel like school [is] a better place than it should be. I feel a lot safer at school, and I learn new things every day, and flourish my friendships and it’s wonderful.” “I wish I got more involved in clubs and really reached out to all the people in my classes, because the people in my classes are [my] graduating class and I think it’s best to make memories with them from freshman year so you’re leaving high school with as many memories as possible,” junior Chloe Im said. “My advice for underclassmen is to ask questions and be curious because if you want to try something new, I think you should just go in it and don’t be afraid to be ambitious. I think [it] would have changed my high school life because I would have made more friends and made more connections to people that I want to get closer with.”
“I wish that I got more involved, researched opportunities, and learned more about what I wanted to do in the future. I would say narrow what you want to do in the future. Look at colleges early. Just figure out what you want to do because being prepared is so much better and makes your high school life easier,” junior Madison Ho said. “If I researched and looked more into opportunities and stuff that I wanted to do in high school, I could make more connections [and] meet new people.” “You should get a buddy that’s in higher grades or has gone through high school to show you the ropes of high school because I extremely regret not having any friends,” senior Krystal Pham said. “My advice for underclassmen [is] get your driver’s license early and take advantage of taking all your AP classes. Don’t overwork yourself. Pace yourself and listen to lo-fi music.”“I wish that I didn’t put too much pressure on myself to focus on academics. I just followed all my friends while everyone else around me was taking all the hard AP classes,” senior Catalina To said. “I wish I took more classes I was interested in . . . In the end, I ended up enjoying photography my junior year and that’s also what led me to join BBN my senior year. Working with cameras is something I really love to do right now. If I didn’t push myself to go outside of academics . . . I don’t think I would ever go into photography.” “I wish that [I joined] clubs early on because I remember I joined clubs at the end of freshman year [and only] really participated at [the] beginning of sophomore year. So freshman year, I was just in my classes [and focused] on the classes too much. I could have befriended more people by joining new communities or exploring things that I thought were interesting but didn’t join,” senior Tri Nguyen said. “My advice [to freshmen] would be to not be nervous [and] to try new things. This is because I feel like freshmen worry that they don’t know something. They feel like they’ll disappoint [or] underperform and maybe [they’re] too aware of people around them [and] about joining things . . . [I think] you [should] join if you want to do it.” “I wish I [didn’t] take a lot of hard classes my freshman year and just focused on enjoying the easier school years that I have instead of piling up a bunch of APs and honor classes,” senior Annie Ngo said. “I would say to [freshmen] to not be so hard on yourself. Especially during senior year. Enjoy it well [and don’t] take so many AP classes, because you’re going to be stuck doing a bunch of homework assignments. Enjoy your senior year with your friends and the last few moments you have of high school. I think I would have been more outgoing and have more time to spend with my family and friends and also focus on, like, not just school, but also my social life.”
