If you think your sophomore year of high school was overwhelming, just wait for junior year. you watched the Juniors run around like crazy at times. It’s a fairly stressful year, so knowing what to expect your junior year means being able to plan ahead to make your way through it unscathed. When you were a freshman, you were probably a little envious of those upperclassmen.
They seemed so big, so mature, right? Now you’re one of them. Where did the time go? Now you’re an upperclassman! While this means you’ve grown up a bit and ‘rule the school’ you also now have even more responsibility to those coming next. You can be the one to offer advice. Some will say ‘It becomes easier’ but some have said ‘It will be your most difficult year yet.’
A few junior students have provided insight what their experiences as junior were. No one will be able to tell you if it will be easy or difficult for you, because that’s for you to find out. Some may pick up bad habits throughout the year. It may get hard and it may be stressful.
“Even when it gets hard, it doesn’t make it okay to take your anger out on others,” junior Taylyn Blaylock said.
Some of you even may come up with creative excuses to get out of homework or assignments that you most likely will end up regretting. Blaylock’s most creative excuse is “Sorry I’m too bored to do it.” People may think they may give you the best advice on what to do your junior year. But there will only be maybe two to three people who will give you the best advice out of your entire year as a junior.
“Just because it rains hard, doesn’t mean the rainbow is far behind,” Blaylock said. “My father [uses this saying to] mean all negative things have a positive outcome.”
You also now have even more responsibility to those coming next. You can be the one to offer advice. It becomes easier to show your faith on campus by leading by example, and underclassmen look to you to set that example.
“Just get what you really need, which is like six things, for all the classes you all are going to have,” junior Lysette Hernandez said. “And take it slow for your junior year because it goes fast.”
You will have all the pressure of tests coming up, and you also have harder classes. This means juniors have the greatest need for good time management skills. You need to balance a lot of school work with the rest of your life. Homework skills are important here and if a good planner is helpful in most other years of school, it’s a necessity in your junior year.
“Study a little harder and make more friends this school year. But study this year [ because you’ll need it],” Hernandez said.
While you spent your freshmen and sophomore years trying out new things and developing your interests, your elective choices get more focused during your junior year. You’re starting to think of your college major or your future career path, so now you start to choose electives that will take you down that path. During your sophomore year, you heard a lot of college talk. However, it’s during your junior year that the talk gets really serious. Colleges are now talking to students about their futures.
You’ll start getting brochures and start thinking of where you actually want to go for school. You may even start going on college visits to explore your options. This is also the year when you’ll decide if you want to go to college or not. You may decide college isn’t for you, so you may look at a trade school or just going straight into the workforce. There are a lot of decisions to be made and none of them will be the wrong answer.
“Just do all your work or you will end up failing,” Junior Kaydence Nickels said. “Just get it done and over with.”
So, be ready. Junior year will be the most difficult year and the most fun.
“Just take it slow; it will work out anyways and if needed just look up templates for most work things that work wonders,” Nickels said. “And if you can just find the amount of work you can miss for the grade you want, then just don’t do the work.”
