As many sophomores, juniors and seniors know, freshmen year is the EASIEST year of high school. If you are present every day and turning in your work, it is easy to have good grades.

As you begin to move up grade levels, and take more advanced cources, things start to become tougher.

Honors classes and Advanced Placement classes can be tough. Almost every night you will have home work in those classes. You will have many pages of notes to take. You will have a test to study for that you may not understand. You might even have a book to read for your english class that you have an essay over.

All of those things are going to someday happen. Sometimes it can get stressful. Sometimes you might even cry.

Luckily, as a freshmen you don’t have to deal with the same pressure as the upper classmen. Freshmen year there are not a lot of things to stress about, unless you take a hard class. For the most part, freshmen year is very laid back.

“I wish I would’ve taken my freshmen year more serious,” former North High student Alonzo Samilton said. “Now that I look back, it was easier than any other grade.”

As you get into higher grades, the more the pressure builds up. Upperclassmen are preparing for college, senior project, ACT’s, community service, mentors, etc. These are things freshmen may not even know about yet.

Let’s not forget about students who are balancing school and sports, or maybe even school and work. This can be a major challenge for them too. Learning how to balance your time is most important.

“The area I struggled with most was balancing my time with school and basketball but I always make sure my homework was done before doing anything else,” Sophomore Brataysia Randle said.

It is important that you are showing up to school, keeping up with due dates, and turning in assignments.

You might think nothing of your grades right now, but they will definitely have an impact on you when you’re applying for college and you failed algebra.

Things will only get tougher, you have to push yourself to be prepared, and to be successful.

Everything is possible. If I can do it, you can too!

Good luck Freshmen.