Here's a topic talked about all the time: how good am I compared to my peers? When it comes to school, there is undoubtedly room for comparisons to be made. Students are yelling their test scores, talking about how hard a quiz was over lunch, etc. As a senior myself, I went through high school really trying to avoid noticing the successes of others. This was obviously quite hard, but if you put your mind to it, you can focus on yourself and be aware that although your friends are winning national basketball tournaments or meeting the mayor, you are doing YOU.

The biggest worry everyone has in high school is whether they’ll fit in or not. Eventually, everyone finds their group of people and gets settled into a routine. If you’re worried about this, know that you will fit in somewhere. For me, this happened later on in my high school life, probably because I was weary of making immediate friends.

Now, there are positives and negatives to my experience. As a benefit, I was able to work on being my best self--getting good grades, not worrying about how well others did compared to how well I did, and just being myself. Too often, someone joins a group of friends and they start to morph into a completely different person. It’s important to stay true to yourself because high school is the time when so many things are changing and new experiences are being made: dances, parties and peer pressure are just some of the experiences that will test your ability at staying true to yourself.

As a negative to my experience, I wasn’t able to meet and learn from a plethora of individuals. Ultimately, it is best to have a group of friends who will not sway your opinion of what it means to be yourself. Instead, they will be with you through the trials and times of high school, a transformative experience in and of itself.