5 Surprising Lessons to Help Get Through High School

High school isn't always easy, but you can make it way easier and more enjoyable for yourself by learning these valuable lessons before it's over.

High school is usually tough at one point or another for most students. Combining secondary-level academics with first jobs, first relationships, college research, and more is a lot for one person to handle no matter who you are. To help you graduate with a good head on your shoulders and more good times than bad, here are a few lessons to learn that’ll help you get through your high school years and beyond.

1. Learn how to cut yourself some slack

Students are expected to do so much these days—there’s more responsibility piled on than many of the generations before you had to deal with. So cut yourself some slack. Give yourself a break. Breathe. No one should be pushing themselves to a breaking point with academics and responsibilities. Yes, you should always try your hardest. But if your hardest is giving you major anxiety and stress, that’s when you need to step back. This will look different for every student. A straight-A student “taking a break” could be allowing themselves a B on an assignment after a really long week. And for a student who’s really struggling, it could mean missing a day of school to rest after doing a ton of extra credit to bring their grade up to a B. Whatever your situation, if you’re doing the work, you also deserve the rest.

Related: How to Manage Your Stress for Better Health as a Student

2. Learn how to savor the moments

It may not seem like it now, but high school is going to fly by, and suddenly, you’ll be in college wondering how you got there. Savor all the moments you can while you have them. Have fun with your friends. Put your all into your academics and know you’re setting yourself a good foundation for whatever your future plans may be. Enjoy the special events you only get in high school. Pay more attention to the world around you than what’s on your phone. A more mindful high school life will set you up for a happier future.

3. Learn how to look beyond high school

Speaking of a happier future (and somewhat contradictory to the last lesson…), you should learn early on that high school won’t be forever. While it’s great to savor the good moments, don’t let yourself get so wrapped up in the bad that you can’t see the other side of the situation. High school will end. The hardships you’re facing will be put behind you, and you do have wonderful things waiting for you in the future. Big moments in high school can sometimes feel like the end of the world when really, it’s just the end of your world as it was before you grew from that experience.

Related: How to Choose Your High School Classes With College in Mind

4. Learn how to teach yourself

But aren’t teachers meant to teach us, you ask? Well, yes. But not every teacher is going to be your favorite, and not every teaching style is going to work well for your learning style. Learning the art of teaching yourself will only benefit your academic life. A lot of college work is independent and self-exploratory, and the sooner you develop this skill, the easier that homework, projects, and tests will be for you in both high school and college. Learn how to organize your notes for maximum effectiveness when studying. Learn how to research for more information and seek out answers when you don’t understand something. Learn how to review concepts that give you trouble and find new ways to approach them. These academic skills will take you far beyond education into your adult working life. 

5. Learn how to choose kindness

This may seem obvious—everyone should be nice! But that isn’t often the reality, especially in high school. It’s easier than you think to get caught up in emotions and high school drama and end up doing things you’re not proud of. Although mistakes are inevitable, if you go into every situation remembering to choose kindness, you’ll find yourself looking back on your high school years a lot more fondly later in life. There are things I did in high school that were petty and unfair because I was acting on teen emotions. And I wish I had spent more time appreciating the time I had and the people around me. It won’t always be easy to recognize it, but the moments to choose kindness will present themselves. It’s your choice how you respond.

Related: 2 Important Things That High Schools Don't Teach You

High school should be an enjoyable experience for you, but let’s not kid ourselves: we can’t just pretend it’s all sunshine and rainbows. You’re going to face tough times just as anyone does throughout their life—just like we all did when we were high school age. But keep your head up. Think smart and with kindness, and you’re sure to get through it with happy memories and a great foundation for your future.

Take a break from reading articles and check out the helpful videos on the CollegeXpress YouTube channel.

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Kelli Dolan

Kelli Dolan

Kelli Dolan is the Senior Assistant Editor & Counselor Communications Coordinator for CollegeXpress. Her day-to-day includes editing and writing CollegeXpress articles, brainstorming ways to improve CollegeXpress content, and basically just doing all things CollegeXpress. When she’s not editing other people’s work, she's writing for fun, favoring literary fiction and fantasy stories and poetry. In her free time, you'll find her reading, playing video games, or hanging out with her dog and cat, Athena and Apollo.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

The University of Tampa

Tampa, FL


Caio Matos

Caio Matos

High School Class of 2022

Starting the college admissions process as an international student was daunting. Thankfully, CollegeXpress was the first website I used for that cause and it helped me so much, from knowing where to start to deciding what my next move would be. I'll take a gap year, but I’m certainly using the website again when applying for fall 2023.

Chris Bell

Chris Bell

Bell College Consulting

The college lists on CollegeXpress are indispensable for sussing out creative additions to a student’s list, and the college-specific pages provide terrific commentary and suggestions for related schools. CollegeXpress is among the most trusted sources I use for information for my students.

Tinuola Dada

Tinuola Dada

$2,000 Community Service Scholarship Winner, 2015

I am very excited to be this year's recipient of the Multicultural Student Community Service Scholarship. This scholarship will bring me ever closer to my academic and professional goals. CollegeXpress has been an exceptional resource to me, and I recommend it to all rising seniors as they begin to navigate the college application process.

Khush

Khush

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress is a multi-maneuver platform that has been helping students in their college applications and scholarship hunt process. For me, CollegeXpress has been a boon. I've been able to find my dream university via CX, and I've also been able to apply to thousands of scholarships through it. All the thanks to CollegeXpress for doing such a great job for free. I express my sincere gratitude to you for doing such a wonderful job. I recommend CollegeXpress without any reservations.

Melanie Kajy

Melanie Kajy

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school. I started off using the college search to find more information about the universities I was interested in. Just this tool alone gave me so much information about a particular school. It was my one-stop shop to learn about college. I was able to find information about college tuition, school rank, majors, and so much more that I can't list it all. The college search tool has helped me narrow down which college I want to attend, and it made a stressful process surprisingly not so stressful. I then moved to the scholarship search tool to find scholarships to apply for because I can't afford to pay for tuition myself. The search tool helped me find scholarships that I was eligible for. The tool gave me all the information I could ever need about a particular scholarship that was being offered. The CollegeXpress scholarship search tool is so much better than other tools offered, like the Chegg scholarship search. Thanks to CollegeXpress, I was able to apply to tons of scholarships in a relatively easy way!