When I was a freshman, high school felt like a big step up from middle school. I wish someone had given me some good advice to stay ahead and have an enjoyable four years here at South, so I’ll try my best to give you some advice.

GET SOME SLEEP! One of the best things you can do in high school, no matter how hard it is, is having a good sleep schedule. Everyone needs different amounts of sleep but getting eight hours is a good rule of thumb. Some things that help me personally are getting off of electronics right before bed, exercising so I can get tired, and not eating shortly before bed. There are plenty of other things that could help you, like maybe listening to calming noises, or even just taking melatonin.

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Procrastination only delays your progress and makes it harder to finish things on time. Some ways to stop procrastinating are setting small goals/deadlines for yourself to keep the work flowing, removing distractions like social media, and not overworking yourself. Take breaks when you need to. If you leave plenty of time for yourself to work, there should be plenty of time for you to rest when you start to slow down and lose focus.

KEEP YOUR FUTURE IN MIND. Maybe the most important thing you get from high school, besides some trivial knowledge, is your transcript. Now I’m not saying if you don’t do great in high school you can’t succeed later in life, because that would be blatantly false, but keeping up good grades, a high gpa, and taking some challenging classes will definitely help you.

BE SMART. Use common sense. Don’t argue with teachers, work on your assignments instead of playing video games, and do things that aren’t illegal. Try to hang around a good group of people. Make sure your friends are people that you enjoy spending time with and that relieve more stress than they create, and that like you for you.

RELAX. A little stress may be helpful sometimes, but too much definitely isn’t. Maybe it’s because you spread yourself too thin or there is a really hard test coming up,  but to lessen the burden you should try to get some good rest and use your panther pluses, and always remember, this isn’t the end of the world.

BE YOURSELF. Everyone is different, and everyone has a right to express themselves as who they are. Don’t be afraid to dress the way you want or to do what you want, because denying who you are is only lying to yourself.