It’s back to the bottom of the food chain. After ruling from the coveted eighth grade throne, middle school graduates must accustom themselves to the formidable presence of upperclassmen and life at the bottom of the high school hierarchy.

Navigating high school waters can pose different challenges such as, “Eep! Stay away from the seniors on the quad! What’s homecoming? There’s a pool on top of Spangenberg?!” As a survivor, some of these pieces of wisdom I collected may be beneficial.

First of all, despite rumors about the heavy workload of high school and solemn sermons teachers give on class policies, freshman year isn’t that intimidating. Most teachers aren’t quite as mean, or in some cases, as nice, as they appear for the first few weeks of school. After a while, the amount of time spent on homework becomes a norm. Usually, it’s not as much time as one would predict.

Even so, laziness often seeps into the mind and demands the person to procrastinate. After a great deal of assignments that “my dog ate,” I learned to “just say no” to excuses such as five more minutes on AIM and learned that prioritizing is the key to every freshman’s survival. Without it, all-nighters would be pulled on a daily basis and worlds would be in chaos! I’m not exaggerating—researchers have shown that getting less than nine hours of sleep per day for a significant period of time causes one to become less mentally competent.

With efficient time management, what should you do with all that free time? Freshman year is the best year to get involved with school activities and extracurriculars. Take advantage of your free time while you can! Once freshman year passes, students get too caught up in college expectations and academic performance to pay much attention to having fun. So, while you can, go join some clubs! Do some community service! Draw some comics and win some debates! Don’t waste time sitting around doing nothing when there are so many alternatives available.

What advice would you give to the class of 2009 for freshman year?

“Respect the upperclassmen.” —Elizabeth Rea (10)

“Eat your Wheaties.” —Jason Zhang (10)

“Have fun freshman year, every year just keeps getting more difficult.” —Danielle Chou (10)