25 Things I Wish I Knew My Freshman Year Of High School | The Odyssey Online
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25 Things I Wish I Knew My Freshman Year Of High School

Because "when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're gonna believe them" is not the only thing I wish I knew when I was fifteen.

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25 Things I Wish I Knew My Freshman Year Of High School
  1. If your best friend stabs you in the back every chance she gets, she’s not your best friend.
  2. Babysitting on a Friday night is not lame. You’ll have plenty of fun weekends in the future and you’ll be thankful for the extra cash.
  3. Your grades do matter. Study hard and take every class seriously. Building good habits now only makes it easier on your future self.
  4. Don’t spend too much time getting ready in the morning. No one is going to notice the extra 20 minutes you put into your make up so you might as well get 20 extra minutes of Z’s.
  5. Go ahead and get that extra scoop of ice cream. Don’t worry, you’re not going to gain five pounds.
  6. Spend time with your hometown friends. These are probably the last four years you all are going to be together.
  7. That being said, choose your friends carefully. They could make or break your entire high school experience.
  8. Treat others how you would want to be treated. The cheesiest saying in the book, but also the truest. Everyone is just trying to survive and get out of here in four years, so don't make it harder than it needs to be on anyone.
  9. Try to make good exercise habits. Trust me, your college self will thank you for escaping the freshman 15.
  10. Boyfriends are overrated. If you have one, great. If you don’t, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.
  11. A bad relationship can foreshadow a lifetime of trust issues and emotional problems. Get out of one before it’s too late.
  12. Spend time with your family. You may not believe me but you will miss them in college. A lot.
  13. Pick your battles. Don’t yell at your mom for forgetting to pack you ranch in your lunch. In a few years, you’ll be wishing she forgot ranch because at least she was still packing you a lunch at all.
  14. Get a job and save your money. It is never too early to start saving. You’re going to be broke at some point in your life, so you’re going to need it.
  15. Try to find your passion as early as you can. This will save you more time and money in college than you could possibly imagine.
  16. Get involved. Holy crap, PLEASE get involved. Volunteer, join a club, join ten clubs! So what if you lose a few hours of Netflix time, I promise you you’ll regret it if you don’t.
  17. Choose the right crowd. Peer pressure is not just something they teach you in D.A.R.E. People will try to convince you to do things you’re not comfortable with, so save yourself the trouble and find people who will never try to make you do something you don’t want to do.
  18. Never assume anything about anybody. You have no idea what they could be going through.
  19. Grudges negatively affect the person holding them way more than the person they’re held against.
  20. Depression is so real. Anxiety is so real. If you're feeling sad or worried for no reason, PLEASE tell someone how you’re feeling. I cannot stress this enough.
  21. Your mental health is so much more important than staying up late studying for a test. My favorite quote is, “If it's midnight and you have an exam the next day but your hands have been shaking for the past hour and a half and you’re not so sure you want to be alive anymore, pull out that jar of Ben and Jerry’s and afterwards, go the f**k to bed.” –Abbie Nielsen
  22. You can’t please everybody, and you may not die trying, but you’ll definitely be emotionally and physically exhausted. Human beings were not built to please every other human being on the planet. The sooner you learn this the better.
  23. ACT/SAT scores do not measure your intelligence. They do not define you. But they are one of the most important factors in college applications. They blow, big time, but you’ve just got to suck it up and do everything you can to score high on them.
  24. Remember that who you are in high school by no means sets you up for who you are the rest of your life. If you mess up, you will get a clean slate. It’s the biggest blessing that none of your college friends will ever know what kind of person you were in high school.
  25. No matter what you heard about high school, try to live it up! The last thing you want to have walking towards your diploma at graduation is regret.
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