THE REALITY OF STUDENT LIFE

STUDENTS ENJOYING THEIR FREE TIME DURING LUNCH; PHOTO BY RAELEE DAY

When you watch a movie about high school it seems to always either be about a love story or painted to be this amazing time of your life. And while yes in some cases you could say that is how people's high school experience is but in most i'd say that isn't how it goes. I would say in my opinion high school is a time in your life where you go through many phases that lead you to being the best version of yourself and ready to face the real world. It can be a stressful time though you may go through many friend groups or struggle with managing school. I’d have to say in my opinion the least enjoyable or hardest years are sophomore and junior year but for different reasons. Let's start off with the easiest year. I think that freshman year is the easiest and I would say this because your freshman year is kinda just a starter year, you're learning the difference between middle and high school and mostly just focused on finding out where everything is and what you want to do like sports or club wise. Then I’d say your senior is the second easiest because you basically just have to show up and make sure you don't fail or have too bad of attendance and you’ll be good. But this is also   different  for   everyone   and   just  my  opinion   from  what  I've   heard  from   seniors.

When it comes to your sophomore year I'd say the classes get a little more intense and the teachers are expecting you to be more responsible and mature then you were the previous year. In my opinion your sophomore year is the first real year of high school because freshman year is kinda more of a learning year and you're usually given a little more leeway. I also think sophomore year is the year where a lot of people lose and gain friends a lot and kinda really start to figure out who they are and who they want to surround themselves with. Then when it comes to your junior year I think it's definitely the hardest year for many reasons but the main one in my opinion would have to be because you're trying to do anything to make your senior year easier whether that's taking extra classes or doing summer school, and this year is usually when you start taking AP or even college classes.

Since this is also all my opinion I wanted to do some research by seeing what others think the hardest year in high school is and why. I decided to read this article written by Kayla McCormack titled “What is the hardest year of high school?” I found that this article was very well written and had a few similar views as me about what the hardest year is. She also goes over how and why every year is important and what the easiest year is. After reading the article and a few others that are similar I got the understanding that most people believe that Junior year is the hardest year and the main reason for that is because of academic demands being increased, like standardized testing like the SAT or ACT but also pressure to get good grades and be involved in school activities for college applications. But on the other hand it is believed that freshman year is the easiest year and this is due to the fact that the classes are usually pretty standard or entry level classes and the pressure to take extracurricular is usually lower than in later years. So to me the reality of high school is that it's all about learning, whether that's in academics, extracurriculars, or even about yourself.