It’s currently 10:00 the night I’m supposed to write this senior reflection, and I’ve been staring at this blinking cursor for longer than I’d care to admit. This is pretty reflective of my entire high school experience: a lot of late night cramming and praying that writing inspiration hits me quickly. Somehow, I’ve managed to get through all four years this way.

When I was asked to write a senior reflection, my initial response was, why? What is there for me to reflect on that the many others before me haven’t written about? From one’s own perspective, it’s pretty easy to imagine that most of your peers have had the exact same experience as you. However, as I near the end of my senior year, I’m starting to realize that there is more variation in these experiences than I had thought. So while some of this may sound redundant, I’m hoping that at least one piece of my advice will stand out and stick with you.

#1: Freshman year is going to feel more important than it actually is.

Let me backtrack on that a bit. Academically, freshman year is very important for setting the tone for your four years, and you should take it seriously in that sense. However, freshman year is often blown out of proportion in terms of social importance. In the moment, it can absolutely feel like the friends, relationships, and drama you’re a part of will loom over you through your senior year and beyond. Though you may make some longtime friends in freshman year, many of the people who enter your life at the beginning of high school will have left your life long ago by the time you graduate. Similarly, the drama that is a constant problem in your first year will most likely be completely forgotten about by the time you’re handed your diploma. I think one of the most important mindsets I’ve adopted in high school is simply that it is never THAT serious.

#2: One academic failure is not the end

One of the most memorable experiences from my freshman year was walking out of my physics midterm thinking, ‘Wow, that went terribly!’ I would love to say I got a pleasant surprise in my grade, but, as expected, the number on my paper reflected those feelings. I would also love to say that I coped with my first failure well. I did not. It was crushing, ego-destroying; all of those things, but what it was NOT was the end. PowerSchool continued to be painful to look at, but life went on, and eventually, a few shiny completion grades pulled my GPA back up to a comfortable level. If I’m being completely transparent, the best way to deal with your first failure is just to live through it. Shed the tears, send the panicked emails, but trust me, you will feel a whole heck of a lot better a few weeks later when you’ve had some time to put it in perspective. In the meantime, accept that it is in the past. It happened, it happened badly, but it is not the end.

#3: Application season is the worst part of senior year.

It’s tempting to say that your last exams are the hardest part of senior year, as it’s the  culmination of not only your AP and IB classes, all in one hectic month. However, the difference between senior exams and college applications is that you’ve taken exams before, but you’ve never applied to college before. There’s a lot of firsts that come with college applications, and the writing specifically may not be a style you’re familiar with. You’re asked to do argumentative writing that isn’t in favor of a thesis, but rather in favor of yourself. You probably aren’t going to get it right on the first try, so my advice would be to start writing as early as possible, and be prepared to tear apart and reassemble your work several times before you like it. This type of writing is new to you, but it’s also new to all of your peers, so the shared feeling of impending doom is almost comforting around when applications are due.

However, once application season passes, life gets a lot easier, as you’re able to focus solely on your academics while you wait on decisions. Try to accept that you’ve done everything you can do, and enjoy the rest of senior year.

That’s about all I have for advice, I hope at least some of it helps. High school is going to feel very important at the moment, but try not to take anything too seriously, and enjoy it if you can.