by Lauren Hesse ’19

Don’t mess around with your classes: If you don’t understand something in a class, don’t just sit and let yourself not understand it. You will feel worse, fail, and keep feeling worse until you have zero confidence in yourself. The higher up you go in your classes, everything builds on everything. You’re going to have to learn stuff and actually remember it, and not let it fade away over the summer or over breaks.

Make lemonade from all the lemons: It is corny, but enjoy all the classic high school stuff like Dr. Minus’s town halls/assemblies, required classes, and other things you hate but have to do anyway. If you don’t like a class, that’s fine, but remember, there was only one way for you to find that out. And Dr. Minus and his speeches may seem kind of impersonal at times, but sometimes just having someone remind you that they care about your future is nice to hear. So maybe don’t spend the entire thing on your phone or trying to disrupt them.

Make friends with your teachers: You might be expecting me to tell you the standard “You need a letter of recommendation!” Actually, I was just going to say that when you like a class, you should tell them, and if they ask you for feedback, take it seriously. Talk to them about stuff that interests you. How do you expect them to know how you, as a student are feeling, if you don’t tell them?

Be easygoing: I’m very type-A and driven towards my goals, and often, this is fantastic. However, if you are like me, you often fret too much about things that don’t actually matter in the long run, like engineering projects that don’t work properly when they did the day before. Try not to stress yourself out too much.