The school year will draw to a close in the beginning of June, and for some students, they won’t have to look forward to Apache Day next year. That’s right, our seniors have been busy wrapping up AP exams and sending out graduation announcements, all the while battling the dreaded senioritis in their last semester. For some, this time of year is a period of enjoying the moment and looking toward summer. Yet, for others, it’s also a time for reflection, a time to look back at their four years of high school with a more mature perspective.

As freshmen, students step foot on campus and everything is about firsts—your first Friday Night Football game, your first finals week, your first Alma Mater chant. Despite the novelty of everything, senior Samantha Vuong advised, “Don’t be afraid to be yourself, make friends, and let go of any pre-existing anxieties. I was super scared that I would be alone at lunch with no friends, but it turns out that finding my own group wasn’t too hard.”

Sophomore year holds so much promise. The nervousness that comes with freshman year fades away and you have a group of friends to share your high school memories with. Samantha said, “Don’t take everything too seriously and chill. Balancing extracurriculars and rigorous classwork might seem hard, but it is definitely possible.” Fellow senior Nicholas Ung added on, “Just relax and don’t worry about making mistakes. It’s only important that you learn from your errors so you don’t repeat them in the future. Focus more on enjoying yourself rather than stressing out.”

The grind that comes with junior year forces students to invest themselves into their schoolwork and extracurriculars, often making more friends along the way. Looking back at the infamous workload of junior year, senior Adrian Lim commented, “I would tell myself to be satisfied as long as I give maximum effort, and not kick myself over a grade I wanted or a score I didn’t receive. ” On the same note, Nick gave some advice for the upcoming juniors and mentioned, “Try to manage your time better. It’s good to enjoy yourself, but procrastinating only stalls the inevitable and generates stress. You have a busy schedule, but you chose to take those classes and feeling overwhelmed is not an excuse to slack off.”

Wrapping up the high school experiences, senior Lucy Zhang gave her thoughts on the question of high school regrets: “We’ve all made mistakes throughout high school and our lives and it would be a waste of time to dwell upon them all. Everything happens for a reason; our mistakes shape our personality and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Based on our senior Apaches’ suggestions, the themes they’ve touched on revolve around enjoying high school as well as balancing extracurriculars and academics. Indeed, these pieces of wisdom are relevant to any underclassmen seeking guidance as well as any upperclassmen looking to reminisce on their four years.