As an only child with no siblings to ask questions of hear experiences from, I was nervous to start high school. To help incoming freshman deal with the change here are some tips and strategies that I have learned to use that help me lower stress and confusion.

My most important tip is to keep yourself organized. When making a big change it is important to know where everything is when you need it. Here are some personal examples:

• When I was in middle school I used a binder to keep all my papers and assignments organized. However when I got to high school I found that a single folder for each class worked better for me.
• In my middle school we had to put our backpacks in our lockers and we were not allowed to take them with us when we went to
• In middle school we carried around large booklets where we wrote our assignments and homework. When I got to high school I bought a mini composition book to write my homework because it was small and compact.

Another change from middle school to high school is the workload. When I started high school I realized that my original work style was not working as well as it used to. So I experimented with different strategies to find what worked for me.

• With the change in workload new studying strategies can help you work at your own pace. Personally I have a hard time sitting down and reading a book for long periods of time because I cannot stay focused so I look for audio books on YouTube and I listen while I read.

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  I found that creating a general after school schedule helps me stay on track and focused. When some people hear schedules they think of strict blocks of time for activities however, personally, my schedule is really just an order of when I do things. When I get home I do homework first, then eating dinner, next I go to the gym, then I shower and then I have the rest of the night to do what I want.

When I was a freshman I was very shy and only talked with my close friend group. Looking back I wish that I had attempted to make new friends. When moving to a new school everyone is feeling the same nervousness and everyone is looking to make new friends so put yourself out there and make friends!

• My friends were not in the same classes as me but I never tried to make other friends because I was shy which meant I never asked help or notes from other students.
• As I got adjusted to high school I began to talk with people in my classes which made the classes fun and I was always able to ask people for help.

My last piece of advice for freshman is help yourself first. Many people bury themselves in school because they want to be the best in their classes or their friends are doing better then them. I always tell friends that its important do do well in school however you need to have downtime. Decompressing from school work and going out with friends helps you stay stress free and happy.

• All of my friends were taking AP classes and they would always talk about their GPAs and difficult tests. I used to think that I was not as good of a student as them.
• Looking back I realized that because I chose not to do AP classes I had much more free time and I met a bunch of new people. Because all of the students in the AP program were placed in the same classes together they only made friends with the AP students. Because I was in honors classes I was with a larger percentage of the schools students and I ended up knowing more people.

Hopefully these tips can help you begin your freshman year in high school! Thank you for reading!

Justin Bennett