One of the questions asked was 'What were the two or three most important things you learned in high school?' --Why was it important and how did she learn these things--
Her straight response was, "The single most important thing I learned in high school is how to go about a research paper," she went on talking about the kinds of research papers she had written during her senior year, "It's the most important because you get little to no structure when assigned a research paper in college, besides certain requirements, such as a minimum number of sources, to go off of," she explained, "In high school we were walked through step-by-step how to go about pulling together a research paper. From the research itself, to gathering useful pieces of information from the resources we find and how to organize them, to outlining and finally putting together the whole paper." she finished before adding, "Another important thing I learned in high school is how to approach teachers. My teachers in high school always reminded us when they were free to help after school hours for extra help--and though I didn't need much extra help in high school, I have in college, and not all teachers verbalize that they do have office hours--usually on the syllabus they hand out-- available for extra help."
When asked 'If you could travel back in time, what would you change-- in your own behavior or in the school itself-- to make your high school experience better?' Her reply was right to the point, "Hands down, I would not procrastinate as much," was her firm answer, "I already missed quite a bit of school because of illness, I got pneumonia twice, both times it put me out for an entire week, and softball, both high school ball and club," she informed, "So keeping up with work was difficult enough without procrastination making it worse," she also answered the question with, "Putting off work until the last minute caused a lot of unneeded stress, especially when it came to senior year, since we had several deadlines throughout the year that we had to make or risk graduating on time."
Another question she was asked was, 'What teacher did you learn the most from? Why do you think you learned the most from him/her?' Taking a moment to gather her answer, she acknowledged the question, "Probably my senior English teacher, Mr. Gardner, because he always related everything we learned that year to either things in life in general, or to what we would be doing in college the next year," she said, "He also was really friendly and relatable, creating a relaxed though structured environment that made it easy to take in what we learned and retain it."
Finally, the last question she was asked was 'What advice would you give to a student to help him/her have a good high school experience?' Her answer came quick, but was nothing shy of insightful, "Develop good habits, such as getting work done early, seeking help from peers and teachers when you need it, and keeping all your work organized," was what she said immediately, then added, "And try not to take things too seriously--yes, doing well in high school is important for getting into a good college and bettering your future--but high school is also the last leg of your childhood so to speak. So make friends, have fun, make good decisions, because whether you have four years of misery or four years of growth and learning is up to your approach and your choices."
To sum it all up, everyone's four years of high school differ from others and can be interpreted in many different ways. Each person has his or her own perspective to the events that take place during this time. Based on their understanding of things and their out look to the things that come at them will weigh heavy on the scale that is high school. It can be the worst four years of their life or the best. It all depends on which side they chose to fill the scale. Perhaps it would be little bit of both.
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