Recently, Patrick Henry High School’s Class of 2025 graduated with Pomp and Circumstance playing as the sun set over Navajo.
After the ceremony, my fellow graduates and I celebrated and took pictures with people we’d known since kindergarten. Walking out of graduation, my younger brother, who had graduated middle school earlier that same day, looked up to me and asked, “Amels, how do I succeed in high school?”
Looking back at him, I could see the nervous middle schooler me, who wanted to succeed in classes, to make friends after a year and a half of Zoom school, and to grow into a version of myself I’d be proud of in four years.
I realized my little brother, just like the rest of PHHS’s incoming Class of 2029, is about to embark on that journey of trial and discovery and could use some advice.
So, what did I tell him he should do? What would I tell anyone looking to become the sort of person who proudly walks across the stage to receive their high school diploma?
Although I know I risk sounding like parents, the link crew leaders you’ll meet at orientation, or the teachers you’ll soon know, here’s some honest, big sister advice from me and other recently graduated seniors.
Join a sport
Sports cultivate grit, both physical and mental, and provide an opportunity to meet amazing people.
In the first week of summer before my freshman year, I started running on the cross country team, and between back-to-back cross country, track, and winter/summer off-season training these last four years, I’ve never stopped.
By being a part of a team, you meet people across all grades, bonding with them closely through rigorous training. You learn to manage your time well, balancing hard workouts after (or before) school with time to get your work done. Pursuing a sport gives you something to focus your attention on besides academics.
Instead of obsessing about the grade you earned on a math test, you can focus on running your event five seconds faster.
Having a non-academic opportunity to make friends, take your mind off school, and pursue physical fitness is an essential part of the high school experience. Joining a sport is something you won’t regret.
Find clubs
Clubs are another way to find community based on your interests.
Graduating Senior Sean Bennion (heading to UC Santa Cruz), described how he only started joining clubs his junior year, but by the end of senior year, had joined nine!
“Even if you’re unsure about joining a club, do it,” Bennion said. “The more you put yourself out there, the more friends you make and the better a time you have throughout those four years.”
With more than 60 clubs to choose from and new clubs founded each year, it’s easy to find the one (or nine) just right for you. But you don’t have to worry about finding that perfect-fit club instantly. In my freshman year, I joined the film arts club and literature club, but neither was my speed.
So instead, my sophomore year, I joined the journalism club, where I grew as a writer amidst others who loved writing as much as I do. By my junior year, I reached out more, joining baking club and brick and board club, where I got to eat sweet treats and play with legos and board games every week with some of my best friends.
It’s also quite easy to make your own club on campus.
I founded a speech and debate club, bringing together a supportive community of avid speakers and thinkers.
So whatever your interests, keep exploring, searching for community or building it yourself.
Challenge yourself academically
Between all the fun extracurriculars, focus on each of your classes.
Take classes that interest you, while pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Taking nine AP classes over four years at Henry, I was surprised by the classes I found myself loving.
For instance, I didn’t really know what to expect from AP Environmental Science. Yet learning about solutions to environmental problems, from slowing human population growth through female education to using compost to support healthier soil and foods, empowered me to be more knowledgeable about ways to save the world.
Don’t just take my word for it.
Emma Clifford (entering UC Davis) detailed how AP Psych fundamentally changed the way she interacts with others. “I used to be much less forgiving and more cynical about human nature,” she said. “But the lesson that we are all just products of our ‘biopsychosocial’ condition showed me that there aren’t really any good people or bad people, just different people.” Clifford expects to use her newfound love of talking to everyone — even people she disagrees with — in her political science major.
So, try out that different class that you’re excited about. Who knows what passion you might discover?
Stay focused and organized
While taking these hard classes, keep yourself organized.
Valedictorian Matthew Buckhout (entering Stanford) noted how important it is to stay on top of all your work. He explained, specifically, how “literally writing down the things you have to do and keeping track of everything is essential to high school success!” This strategy worked for him, as he managed pole vaulting, theatre, speech, and debate, and a full AP course load of six AP classes in both his junior and senior year.
While not everyone can manage everything Buckhout did, it’s important as you balance all of your clubs, sports, and grades to stay organized and to manage your time. In my freshman and sophomore year, I would work for hours and hours on an assignment that wasn’t worth as much effort as I’d given it.
Instead, try giving yourself a set amount of time to do something.
I started setting a timer for myself, giving me 25 minutes to work, forcing myself to take five minute breaks in between each work session. This helped me keep track of my time, have a sense of agency, move on to other assignments, and have more time to sleep or get in some much needed relaxation.
Be a high school
Remember that you’re a kid in high school.
Fatma Mohamed (entering Cal Poly Pomona) noted how her biggest regret was not talking to more people. “I think everyone was making more of an effort to be social towards the end of the year because we were graduating, but there were a lot of cool people I talked to that I could’ve been really good friends with if I had made an effort earlier on.”
In fact, almost every graduating senior I asked noted how much they wished they were a bit more social all four years.
So grab a coffee at Simple in the morning. Say hi to Link Leaders or Ms. Stanley in the library after school. Take a hike with your friends up Cowles Mountain on the weekends. Because when I walked across that stage at graduation, I wasn’t thinking about the cords I had draped on my neck, what PR I’d run in any event, or what score I received on any test.
Instead, I remembered the experiences I’d had at Henry, the conversations I’d had in the library in the mornings, walking into speech and debate where my friends laughed over some insane debate topic they’d come up with, or hopping a fence to cool down after a 3200m with girls from other teams as the sun set.
As you step into high school, keep it all in perspective.
Push yourself, make friends, and work hard to become the best version of yourself. But make memories that you’ll never forget!
I can’t wait to see you walk across that stage in four years, proud of yourself, ready to move on to your next chapter, and filled with the friendships and stories of your own high school experience.
Amelia Kirkegaard is a recent graduate of Patrick Henry High School.
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