Top 10 Tips for Starting High School

Posted on 03. Sep, 2007 by kchristieh in education, my life, parenting

My son starts his freshman year of high school tomorrow. He’s savoring the last day of summer and the fourth day of having his cast off by playing video games and swimming with some friends. Once the friends leave, I’m going to have him read the following from Cherie Bennett’s column that I read in the San Diego Union this weekend. We’ve already spoken about #6 today, and I’ll talk to him about #5 later on this evening. Thankfully, #9′s not an issue!!!

Top 10 Tips for Starting High School

1. There’s a much bigger difference in maturity and what you can do between a 10th-grader and a 12th-grader than between a seventh-grader and a ninth-grader. Always remember who you are.
2. Don’t drink. Don’t do drugs. High school is complicated enough.
3. Don’t get in a car with anyone who ignores No. 2. Life is precious and an accident where you’re a passenger with a drunk driver is such a waste.
4. The great novelist Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are who we appear to be.” (Yeah, yeah, I wish I’d said it.) This is especially true at a big school where people don’t know the real you. Who you appear to be is what people will think you are. Act and dress accordingly.
5. Reputations are made quickly and repaired slowly. Act and dress accordingly. What your teachers decide about you in the first week will help you or hurt you.
6. Don’t get behind in your schoolwork. In fact, get ahead in your reading. You will get sick at some point during the year. It’s much more pleasant to recuperate from a stomach virus without having to read a history textbook in bed or elsewhere.
7. Make acquaintances quickly and friends slowly. There is a very good chance that your best friends from the first week of school won’t be your best friends when you graduate.
8. Never forget that despite bravado, every other new student is just as nervous as you, except for the ones who are repeating the grade. And they should be nervous.
9. Schoolwork first, boyfriend/girlfriend second.
10. Review, review, review — starting with 1 through 10!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates via email or RSS.

Tags: high school, lchs