Accepted? Time to Crush It.

To all of my readers who have recently received their acceptance letter, CONGRATULATIONS! I applied Early Decision last year and was accepted on December 15th, 2011. The problem with getting accepted so early is that you’re not done with high school even though it feels like it.

I definitely struggled with “senioritis” last year, and I would suggest that you do not succumb to its lies and trickery. Rather, continue to fight the good fight. Finish strong in your AP courses so you can get your credit, and don’t just coast through the end. You’ll want to place out of intro classes or have your AP credits. That way, you don’t have to worry so much about not being able to graduate on time, which is quite the costly mistake.

But more importantly, now is the time to start exploring your interests, honing your talents, and practicing your arts. If I could go back to senior year, I’d spend less time being lazy just because I could and more time working on my hobbies. When you get to college, you’ll wish that you were more musical, artistic, etc., because you’re going to be meeting a lot of people with great talent, and you’ll want to be able to join in on their creative fun.

My other suggestion would be to get a part-time job and start saving money, to:

1. Prepare to start paying for school, books, housing, etc.,
2. Have money for all of the fun opportunities that will be available to you in college, or
3. Go on an amazing trip somewhere abroad! (I spent four weeks in China the summer before I came to UR. Highly recommended.)

Also, apply for scholarships! Meet with your guidance counselor, use the Internet, talk to your parents, get a scholarship book. Just apply, apply, apply. The more you write, the easier they'll be to write (copy pasta), and the higher your chances are of winning (essentially free) money! I got one local scholarship for $500 and after the taste of that, I wished that I'd applied for more.

Senioritis isn’t glamorous; it’s a terrible mindset because you’re in a weird transition period. My brother once told me, “No one is going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you that now is the time to be awesome.” But for now, consider him wrong and yourselves tapped on the shoulder: go be awesome and spend the rest of your high school days absolutely crushing it intellectually, artistically, socially, and financially.