I’ve learned a lot throughout these four years and the best advice I could give you guys is to always give your one hundred percent. Get involved. Do all your assignments. Get out of your comfort zone. Try new things, and most importantly don’t be lazy.

I have first hand experience with the procrastination disease. My biggest regret in high school was not trying my best all of the time. Yeah I passed, I never failed a class, I was your average Greeley West High School student – doing the bare minimum to get by. 

I let my depression take over and didn’t put my mental health first. That was my first mistake, and I had to fall on my face to learn it the hard way. I didn’t have a good support system and during COVID, especially, I felt extremely alone behind a screen. I wouldn’t ask for help and I just gave up. 

Luckily for me I had a pretty caring, AVID teacher that always helped me back up and made me take accountability for my choices, and motivated me to do better. Without Mr. Falter, I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now, and I definitely would not be headed to college after graduation.

As a student it’s your choice to take responsibility for yourself. You have to be the one to do the assignments and the projects; no one is going to do it for you. I struggled to motivate myself, but when I did, I found myself to be a lot more successful and a lot happier. It feels good to be able to accomplish stuff by yourself after the struggle. 

It’s a lot easier when you create those relationships with your teachers and your classmates because then they get to know your story, and know you as a person, and you feel less alone. It becomes easier to come to school and actually do your best work when you have people around you that you know have your back.

Don’t go into highs chool scared to do anything, be open minded to try new things because you’ll never know what experience you’ll get out of it. It’s better to say you tried it and didn’t like it then to regret not trying it later. Put forth your best effort so you won’t have to look back on it later and think about all the things you could have done differently.  

Don’t get me wrong, being a high school student isn’t always about grades, this time right now is how individuals find themselves and create their character. So take advantage of every opportunity these four years will bring you and you’ll be able to thrive. And if any of you are like me, you’ll get there, too, on your own time.