The countdown to graduation has begun for the Class of 2025. As the bittersweet four years come to an end, seniors face a long-awaited journey into young adulthood. With this new beginning comes new responsibilities and challenges.
What do teachers wish they could tell their high school selves? We’ve gathered a collection of insightful and practical advice from teachers, specifically tailored for the Class of 2025, covering how to navigate life’s twists and turns, through relationships, self-confidence and living life to the fullest.
Photos by Minh Le.
“My advice for the class of 2025 is to pick something that you actually love doing because you’re gonna be doing it for a very long time. It’s nice to wake up every morning knowing that what you’re gonna go do is something you actually enjoy … I kind of went down the psychology pathway for a while … [And] I realized I would come home at the end of the day and [I would] bring everyone’s problems with [me]. And I wasn’t very good at disconnecting that from my real life … [Now] I wake up every morning, excited for my [educational] job … Make sure [your career is] something you’re doing for yourself and that you’re happy,” math teacher Leslie Murray said.“My advice for the class of 2025, is ‘no money, no honey’ … You should not be going into a relationship if you are not ready to provide for yourself or for your honey …You should not be asking your parents for money for a date,” Math teacher Brandon Nguyen said.“I just think that some of us [sometimes forget] how special and how important we are to the universe. As [a] tree grows outside and [that tree] is important for our oxygen, so is each one of us to each other. And so I think it’s easy for people to forget that they belong here or that they [belong] just by being here … We’re each our own superhero in our own lives and … never forget that because we are miraculously literally made of stardust,” Psychology teacher Gina Carbone said.“One piece of advice I always give my senior students is to ‘follow your bliss,’ a phrase from my scholar hero, Joseph Campbell … his phrase suggests that by pursuing our passions, we can discover both purpose and happiness in life. Sometimes outside pressures and concerns can steer us off course, but if you let your passion be your compass, you will find your bliss,” English teacher Minnie Zeigler said.“[Look] for the good in people …, in yourself [and] … in the world. [There’s] something about being hopeful [that] is really important, in that there is good in everybody … There’s always a reason to hope and [let] that anchor you … And when we can learn to live for something that is bigger than ourselves … Then we have the opportunity to live a life that’s meaningful and joyful. Then, ‘progress over perfection’ [means that it] is hard and … Messy. There are ups and downs … [Just] remember that any progress at all [is good], even [if it’s] getting up the next day and going through the motions. [Lastly,] ‘faking it till you make it’ is progress … The dirty little secret of being an adult is nobody knows what they’re doing. We’re all just moving forward. We’re all just trying to be better,” English teacher Yvette Wright said.“We need public servants badly … We don’t have enough firefighters … You got to be physically capable of carrying … That giant hose … Judging from [what we saw in the Los Angeles fires], we need more … ‘Heavy O’ (heavy Oxygen)… It is kind of like a tribute to Marie Curie [my favorite scientist] who won both a Nobel Prize in Physics and a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. So she should be celebrated … [Anyway] Whatever it is you like to do, go dive into it deeply … [The more you dive into an activity], The more you will have other opportunities open to you,” Chemistry teacher Mike Olsberg said. “I tried to capture it under three main things: be curious, be present and be yourself … Oftentimes … people don’t venture into getting to know different people … [Being present means] it’s important to have goals, but you don’t want to lose sight of enjoying the present moment … With your family and friends … [Thirdly, just] be yourself … [it’s] good to know different perspectives but you still want to be true to yourself … You don’t need to be someone … In a position of power or wealth … To make a difference. Every person makes a difference every day in their own way,” Spanish teacher Jim Diecidue said.“I always encourage my students to build a community. [If you’re in college, make sure] that you make connections, not only with people you know within your dorms, but through clubs and through your search for a career … when you need to lean on someone in the future, it’s always nice to have a community behind you to support you,” math teacher Hoa Kim said.“Don’t care so much about what others think about you … It’s a much happier place to be when you don’t care [about what others think about you]. And most of the time, people are too worried about themselves, [so] they’re not thinking about you anyway. The next [advice is to] remember ‘your best is the best, we can’t do any better’ … A lot of us …put pressure on ourselves …we want to be perfect, right? … You got to stop and ask yourself, did I try my best? And if the answer is yes, then … be proud of where you’re at in that moment … If you want to be perfect at anything you do, you just put your heart into it. Have intention and always move forward with love … If you just wake up in the morning and you’re like, ‘I’m gonna love,’ … it just makes everything better,” Biology teacher Emily Barro said.
