“GIRL, DON’T DO IT!”

That’s what I would have told my freshman self four years ago.

When I first came to Watkins Mill, I don’t know what I expected. But it certainly wasn’t to almost get held back freshman year and struggle to get myself on the right track for the rest of my high school career. Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking.

This is for all current and upcoming freshmen: PLEASE DO WELL FRESHMAN YEAR! (And, you know, all the following years too.) You can ask anyone; freshman year is the most important year of high school. It basically predicts how the rest of high school will be for you.

Even though my freshman year was full of bad choices and regrets, the following years weren’t awful. I learned a lot about myself and others and, you know, school stuff too. The most important thing I learned is to not be afraid to ask for help.

Seriously.

You can ask anyone for help and the worst thing that could happen is that they’ll say “no.” (And if they say no, forget them. You don’t need that kind of person anyway.)

I believe the Mill has a lot of awesome teachers that students can go to for help. I know I couldn’t have gotten through the rough patches of high school without some of them. (*ahem* Mrs. Confino).

My last piece of advice is to just worry about yourself and your education and make good choices for yourself. I promise you’ll thank yourself for it later. And if you ever feel like high school is going by slowly, don’t worry; graduation will come sooner than you think… and then you have to worry about college.