Now that the 2018-19 school year is nearing the end, I wish I could go back in time and tell my eighth-grade self to not worry about the year ahead.

Luckily, my mom works at my school, and my older sister is a sophomore. So, I’d heard the good and bad stories about high school.

Every time I would come to Dunbar with my mom, the size of this school was very intimidating. Coming from Beaumont, a smaller middle school, I would be overwhelmed.

Aside from the building itself, I was not ready to be back at the bottom of the totem pole. I was used to being an eighth grader who knew everyone and everything in middle school. I was worried I wouldn’t know anyone and never see my friends from middle school.

However, that was not the case. I am still in a lot of classes with people I already knew, and there’s always a chance to make new friends.

“I know a lot of the same people from middle school so it’s not that different. I thought that everyone would know each other as a grade a lot sooner, but that took a lot more time than I thought. It ended up being nice because I still ended up having a lot of friends and a lot of cool people to hang out with,” freshman Ana Maria Cornea said.

One thing I was told by my counselor and parents was to not overload my schedule because it’s not worth the stress during the first year of high school. I made my schedule manageable so my first year of high school could be successful.

“If I could go back and warn my eighth grades self about something, it would be to not take too many AP classes. I wish I would have taken summer gym before freshman year instead of putting it off for the next year,” freshman Caitlyn Smith said.

I had heard my mom and sister talk about the A and B day rotation and the schedule and class change, but all of that seemed like gibberish to me. When it finally came time for me to start learning things about Dunbar and high school itself, I found the two-day rotation and class changes strange.

I was scared that I would not remember which day it was or that I would forget my schedule. My mom told me multiple times that if anything, she would be the one to forget what day we had and that I would pick up on the rotation quickly.

I was so used to having the same six classes every day and was released from class by a bell. I found it unusual how they didn’t have class change bells at Dunbar, but instead music for the last minute of class change.

Procrastination is one of the most common things students do that puts them in trouble in the future. The best thing to do is to get your work done in a timely manner. Don’t put school work to the side just because of laziness. Use every bit of time to get things done, especially if there is not much time outside of school due to other activities.

“The best advice I could give to next year’s freshman class is to work hard, but don’t overwork yourself and then make sure that you use your time wisely,” freshman Ayush Tibrewal said.

High school seemed like such a big place with tons of new things to learn. I thought that it would be one of the most stressful experiences I had had by far, that was definitely not the case. My freshman year was not very stressful, nothing compared to what I imagined. Yes, I had to put in a lot of work to keep up in my classes to prevent any stress possible, but don’t be afraid to have fun outside of school.

“I thought high school would be more time consuming and that there wouldn’t be any time to do anything outside of school that I wanted to do, but I’ve had a lot more time than I thought I would outside of school,” freshman Delaney Rager said.

The best advice I can give to incoming freshman is to just have fun. It doesn’t seem like that is possible at times, but your high school experience will be over as soon as you know it. You only have four years here, so enjoy it while you can and make the best out of every situation you have.