High school. It feels like forever and then suddenly it’s over. I don’t mean to be cliche but as you will soon find out high school really does go by in the blink of an eye. To all the incoming freshmen, I know the workload seems overwhelming and it will take some getting used to, but you have to remember that balance is key. Grades are important, you want to get good grades so you can into to a good college, so you can have a good job and live a good life. However, grades are not everything, class rank does not define you, and you can’t let homework take over your life. My number one piece of advice for new high schoolers is to get involved. Join a sport, a club, band, choir, newspaper- these organizations will allow you to make friends who will stand by you throughout highschool, and trust me, you’ll need them. Go to sporting events, even if you hate football and you’re to cool for everyone there, just go, it’s fun, I promise. Having school spirit may seem lame, but bonding with other students definitely is not. You’ll be with these people for the next four years and the last thing you want is to graduate realizing you never knew any of them. My next piece of advice is to always have a positive attitude. Like anything in life high school is all about having the right perspective. You may receive a bad test score, or have a bad game but the important thing is that you use these failures to drive you to work even harder. I remember entering WHAP my sophomore year and receiving an awful grade on my very first quiz. I thought the class was going to be impossible, but I let this fear drive me to work hard and ended up making wonderful grades both in the class and on the AP test. The last advice I’m going to give you is don’t let the little things get to you. A small failure or some hurtful words from a classmate may seem important now but like I said, high school is over in the blink of an eye so you need to learn to forgive and forget. I don’t want to say high school is all about having fun but I simply wish to tell you that fun is part of it. Don’t allow the stress to take over your life because at the end of the day you only get four years in high school.