My Advice for First Steps in High School
I sincerely congratulate you on your admission to start high school. As you begin, I invite you to ask yourself the following questions: What is my overall goal in this school? What friends will I have? Will I participate in extracurricular activities? How will I respond to my teachers and relate to my colleagues? Think deeply about these. Pause for a moment to give answers to some or all of them. And see if you can align your responses with my advice.
High school calls for more responsibility from you than was required in lower grades. Now is the time to see life more clearly and get closer to choosing your interests. Education at this stage offers you an opportunity to discover yourself: explore it. Build on your strengths while you work hard on diminishing your weaknesses.
I strongly advise you to set specific goals for yourself. Define your academic objectives. Aim to be the best student in your class throughout the grades. Start preparing for college. Write down these goals as you want them and post your write-up where you can always see it. You may also want to participate in one or two extracurricular activities, go ahead. Get as many awards as you can both in class and on the playing field. Look for friends that share these goals, and cooperate with them. Develop a team spirit as you work with your friends will help you later in life.
Set out time to identify your talents and gifts. Explore them for the benefit of yourself and others. You can do it! This will build you up for the challenges ahead and prepare you for college. You can get the best out of the high school experience.