fivE HIGH SCHOOL LESSONS TO TAKE INTO COLLEGE

From my seat among the cluster of seniors sitting on the Palo Alto High School Quad during lunch, I can see a trio of freshmen walking towards the edge of the grass. I don’t know them, but everything about them screams freshman: the giddy smiles at the lunches they bought from Town and Country, their eyes darting around in awe, the way they look just a little smaller than everyone else, even though they’re probably taller than me. But above all else, what stands out most about freshmen is the way that they’re excited by everything that I have grown used to about Paly. The intense spikeball games on the Quad, rushed Peet’s trips to after a late night and journalists armed with stacks of magazines no longer surprise me; they’re just a part of my daily life.

But it took me many years to feel so comfortable; when I walked on campus on the first day of freshman year, I had never felt smaller. It’s terrifying that in a few short months, I will be a freshman again, trying to navigate a new place. But through the challenges of the last four years, and four first days of school, I have gained wisdom that I am confident will get me through (at least) the first day of college.

I’ve never been a morning person, but on the first day of school I always find myself waking up long before my alarm — nervous, but excited. The first day of freshman year, though, was far more nerves than excitement. I’d spent the last three years at an all-girls school with 200 students, and now, I was walking into my first day of high school at a public, co-ed school with 2,000 students.

As I waited outside my Advisory classroom for the first bell, I watched my classmates break off into clusters of jittery small talk, not seeing a single familiar face. Time passed and I was still standing alone, my heart started to beat faster and my face heated up. I went from just feeling awkward, to feeling out of place, and I started to nitpick at my outfit and my hair and my makeup.

“Hi, I’m Anna. Are you also in Ms. Kolb’s Advisory?”

I looked up to another student smiling at me, snapping out of the nervous spiral I was hurtling down just a moment ago.

Lesson one: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

All it took was one introduction for me to feel infinitely better. I was lucky enough to have someone approach me that day, but I