High school students are experiencing all the same issues as generations before, but amplified. Students still worry about the same things their parents did: maintaining good grades, staying focused, thinking about college and balancing school with other priorities.
The only difference is that it has been over 600 days since the last normal day of school for most students. Students now have to carry the added weight of a global pandemic blurring the future they had planned, while still dealing with the average issues of high school. The balance of home, school, relationships, sports and mental health is entirely thrown off.
Freshmen are entering high school unsure and looking up to upperclassmen for leadership and guidance that isn’t there. Upperclassmen have lost the time and experience needed to allow them to be those leaders again, all while still trying to figure out their future.
The emotional and mental exhaustion of being a student in a pandemic is something that no one can give advice on. This concern is one issue parents, teachers and mentors have no experience with. The unknowns of being a teenager combined with the unknowns of life leave young adults stunted.
Uncertainty of leaving high school
Jumping into senior year comes with a lot of uncertainty and big decisions that many students may be scared to make. Though the excitement of getting out of a small town and getting new life experiences encourages students to push through and stay successful. Being a part of the Stockbridge community comes with its comforts, though.
Racing through high school, Brooklyn Rochow is taking multiple AP classes and an online course to prepare her for the medical field at a university. She has applied to multiple places but has not decided which one she wants to go to yet. Everything that she has done through high school regarding academics has been to try and get her ready for when she finally finishes the race and moves up to the big leagues (college).
“I am concerned with getting lost and not knowing what to do [as well as] making new friends,” senior Rochow said. “I am most excited for just exploring new things, meeting new people in college and figuring out who I am outside of Stockbridge.”
Growing up in a small area everyone knows everyone and where all the restaurants, stores, and even people are located.Because of growing up with the safety net of knowing all the surroundings, it may be intimidating to leave, but it also comes with excitement. Upperclassmen like the seniors and juniors know insider information on what they would want to know if they could go back in time.
McKenzie Hatfield who has gone through the struggles of online schooling through the pandemic now has to catch up from falling behind the year before.
“Being online affected my GPA in a bad way, I used to be a straight A-B student and when I was online I was getting C’s and D’s,” senior Hatfield said. “I failed one class that year that I now have to retake this year and I had very little to no motivation at all when I was online.”
Maintaining good grades is something that a lot of people struggle with during high school even though it is important to future plans like going to college.
Maintaining good grades challenges even the most dedicated student, even though they are important to future plans like going to college. The National Association of College Admissions Counselors agrees.
A survey by The National Association of College Admission Counseling revealed that “81% of universities surveyed placed considerable importance on grades in all courses. This means that your grades and GPA are one of the largest determining factors on whether you get in.”
While grades are very important to getting a headstart into colleges, so is exploring new options and trying to see what types of things you are interested in.
According to the University of BridgePort, “An estimated 20-50% of students enter college undecided, while an estimated 75% report having changed their major at least once.”
Prevalent among high school graduates, the effects of starting college undecided can be minimized even just a little bit before graduation.
In 2017, Gallup reported that half of U.S. adults would change at least “one aspect of their education,” noting that their major or field of study was their “greatest source of regret.”
“I definitely urge the underclassman to try out new classes in high school because you never know what you might be interested in,” Rochow said. “I would like to know who I should meet with to get the best classes I can get into and where I’m supposed to do my scheduling.”
PHOTO OF BROOKLYN ROCHOW
Piecing it together alone
Junior year is rumored to be one of lots of work and responsibility. Many teenagers get lost in their work or in the process of trying to move on to the next step in their education. Especially with the restrictions of COVID-19 and the adaptations students have had to overcome, progressing and growing up throughout high school can be a difficult or confusing time period.
“It would be if they would tell us more about college and tell us more about college visits, because I wasn’t going to them at first. Now that I have been going to them I know a lot more about it than I did before,” junior Maggie Malher said.
Having more guidance in what to do to move forward is something that a lot of people need and don’t know how to get.
According to National Center for Education statistics, “Between 1984 and 2002, the proportion of public high schools indicating that helping students with their academic achievement in high school was the most emphasized guidance goal increased from 35 percent to 48 percent.”
Yet throughout the pandemic and leaking into the 2021-2022 school year teenagers are/were not able to easily receive this help. Many students did not know about how to find a guidance counselor or programs to help them figure out what the next steps they need to take.
“Actually try in your classes and if you do that it will be a lot easier your junior year,” Mahler said. “Also get into a small habit of studying so you can be prepared when you go take the PSATs and the SAT,” Mahler said.
Some upperclassmen had to stumble across the help or dig to find it, it was not readily accessible to them. Because of this, near graduates are falling behind and getting confused.
“It felt like I was teaching myself, especially with all my hard classes like world history and physics.” Hatfield said. “I feel like the only way [guidance conulars] would help you is if you reached out to them, they weren’t really reaching out to students to help us. I didn't know what to submit for my classes for senior year and colleges.”
As a result of this, seniors this year are left unprepared and lacking the knowledge they need to proceed to the next steps, life outside of high school.
“I didn’t even know what I needed to know. Like I didn't know what information I was missing and what I should reach out about,” Hatfield said.
With better guidance and information provided there would be a lot more clarity moving forward. Unfortunately, even after online schooling has stopped, the class of 2023 is still having the lack of guidance on how to move forward into their senior year.
Having this information is something many students wish they had known or taken seriously. By keeping up with your school and preparing oneself for upcoming events like the SAT can be very important to the future and growing up later on. According to the College Board, those who score higher on the SATs have a better chance of getting good grades in college, which is why many students panic when it comes to the SATs.
“Make sure you keep your grades up on your work and pass your classes so you don’t get behind when you get up to your junior senior year and have to struggle to try to make sure you're passing all your classes,” junior Jacob Collins said.
PHOTO OF KATELYN REGAN
Making it Through the Years
Although sophomore year is often regarded as the easiest year of high school, many tenth graders disagree.
“This isn’t middle school anymore. How you do [in school] will affect you for the rest of your life,” sophomore Kaitlyn Oversmith said.
Sophomore year brings whole new worries that some freshmen never even think of, like the struggles of going into junior year during a pandemic.
“You have to give it 110% if you want to keep up with everything,” sophomore Travis Sayler said.
When you just come out of middle school where grades almost did not matter at all, keeping up grades becomes even more difficult. According to Inside Higher Ed, around 42% of students fail at least one class during high school.
“Stay on top of everything, if you fall behind it’s almost impossible to catch up,” sophomore Samantha Nothnagel said.
PHOTO OF KAITLYN OVERSMITH
Just out of middle school, freshman year is a difficult one for all new high schoolers. Katelyn Regan stepped into the high school, not realizing how different it would be. A bit overwhelmed from the new environment and all the people, Regan took a deep breath, ready for the rest of the day. After being high schoolers for only a little over two months, the new freshmen are full of questions about high school.
“Is it difficult? Like, emotionally, and educationally?” freshman Ethan Bradley said.
Even early in high school, students begin to think about their future, like college, future jobs, and the SATs.
“How hard is the SAT? My whole life I’ve heard about how hard it is,” freshman Collin Trost said.
High school is absolutely more important than middle school, and nobody knows that more than freshmen, who are barely out of middle school and are still learning the ropes of high school.
According to College Vine, “Ultimately your freshman year grades are important because they will weigh into your GPA and affect your class rank, both of which are factors that a college admissions committee is very interested in.”
“Upcoming freshmen need to get their work done and don’t fool around. High school is serious compared to middle school,” freshman Katelyn Regan said.
PHOTO OF JACOB COLLINS