Junior year is made up of the penultimate semesters of your education. Everything has lead to this point in your high school career. This is the year of your ACT, On-Demand, and many other skills that prepare you for college and real-world excellence. My Junior year has been all of this and more.

Autumn Highs

The fall semester is your introduction into the year. It goes by faster than the second semester and is not bogged down by monotonous standardized testing. AP Lang only had one book in store for us to read and the focused mostly on grammar training. Chemistry was just the basics and was easy enough. APUSH was just ramping up and made enough sense. PreCalculus was just an Algebra 2 review. I met some amazing people and, overall, had a great time. I found my love for writing and reading. I also discovered my second favorite book: All the Kings Men. I highly recommend it, despite the fact that it is a marathon to read and Warren’s English is older and harder to understand, because it has a great theme and wonderful elements.

Second Semester Blues

The spring semester was a completely different beast. It was very rough, as it ramps up and consumes all of your time and energy. It’s test, over test, over test. Over and over again. It really drained me with it’s multiple AP tests, the ACT, being a writing teacher assistant, running from school to work, and just keeping up with life in general. I haven’t been to the gym in months and I am so ready for a break. AP Lang makes you hit the books hard. Chemistry got so hard after I was switched to a harder class. PreCalculus became incomprehensible. APUSH was a lot of busy work at this point, requiring all-nighters for homework, and unpredictable tests.

Junior year is the hardest year for any high schooler. It’s the first big wake up call you’re going to get before you get into college. Nobody is going to hold your hand through it. You will need to work hard. Teachers won’t always offer study guides, guided notes, and hand-holding. In fact, they will, seemingly, be actively trying to make life harder for you. You’ll need to persevere and fight tooth and nail to keep a good grade. So, incoming sophomores, I bid you good luck. I will be retiring to the gym, pool, and work for the rest of summer. It’s been amazing writing for this newspaper. Thank you.