A High School Senior's Advice to Freshmen
A High School Senior's Advice to Freshmen
by Shariffa Payne
Shariffa, 17, is a contributing writer to YO!
September 13, 2002
I remember being a freshman, and I remember how scared I was walking into my first day of high school. I remember how sexy all the senior boys were and how bootsy I was. I remember how terrified I was of walking around a whole bunch of girls because those girls did whoride and I didn't want to be a victim of their jokes.
I started high school in the fall of 1999. I didn't have anyone to show me this or teach me that, I had to learn everything on my own.
Life changed so much for me in high school. So much drama. I had to live with my sister for a while because it wasn't working out with my mother's husband. I put on a lot of weight and I wasn't really liking myself. But no matter how early I had to catch the bus because my sister lived dumb far from school, or how many tears I cried because my life was turning to shit, or how late I had to stay up to study, or how hurt I was that I didn't have my mother, I always had to think of the big picture. Problems don't last forever. The only constant thing in life is change.
Keep the grades up. Yea, all you need is a 2.0 to play basketball or football or volleyball, but colleges don't like 2.0s. Especially Harvard. But not everyone thinks about going to Harvard, or even going to college. I believe everyone has the potential to make great grades. My grades haven't dropped below a 3.0 in all my years of high school. But every year is different and every person is different. I'm just saying that if you want something good for yourself, if you want to get out the ghetto and you want to have nice things, you have to go to college and do well.
The next four years of your life, the parental units will be wilin out for real. Especially if you are a girl, but even worse if you don't do good in school or if you do drugs. Try to stay active, get involved in sports, homework programs, clubs, because if you are like me, I looked for reasons not to come home. My parents would say no if I asked to go to Leila's house, but they couldn't say no if I asked to go to Homework Help.
Boys don't mean much. You may go through at least 3 significant your whole time in high school.
Finally, and this is the most important advice I could ever give anyone, freshmen in high school or not, be ready for anything. Life takes some serious twists and turns. I didn't think the beef between me and my mother's husband would get so bad that I would have to leave. But I learned a lot by not living at home. I learned not [next page]