Freshmen year at Fraser High School is the start of a new adventure that takes first year high school students on a journey to find themselves and decide what they want to do once they are officially adults. Many Freshmen struggle with their first year because the transition of middle school to high school can be difficult.

“Freshman year was easy academically, but it was hard because it was a year of being immersed in a new culture. I came from a private school, so freshmen year was a large adjustment period for me,” said Stewart Mitchell, a Senior student at FHS. “Above All, I realized that I wanted to set myself up for success, so I put the majority of my focus towards school to get ahead and lay the framework for the rest of high school. I’m happy with how that went.”

What most Freshmen don’t realize, is how important their first year is. GPA will rise or fall, grades get more important, and the first year will impact how the rest of high school will go for them.

“Freshman year was hectic for me. There were good and bad times, but when aren’t there?” said Haili Vollen, another Senior at FHS. “With my Parents going through divorce, stressing about how I was going to pay for my homecoming dress, and my grades slipping from my fingertips, it was definitely a challenge. with my family and friends by my side, I knew I could get through it. I did fail two classes freshman year, and had great teachers who helped me pass the classes that I needed to pass so I could graduate this year.”

The teachers who teach freshmen know what is the best for them. Teachers deal with the struggles and help the freshmen who need the help. It is not always easy but the teachers find away to help them. The teachers understand what freshmen go through, so talking to a teacher about what to do or to find help with classwork or to find out more information is something all freshmen should do.

“I think a lot of ninth graders don’t realize that the mistakes they are making is counting towards their future. I think it’s because before they got here they could fail a class and still get moved along and they weren’t trying to earn the credits and they weren’t working towards their GPA.” said Laura Woods, an english teacher, “I think it’s really easy for them to get here and not realize that things are much higher stakes, so we see a lot of ninth graders who fall apart either first semester or all of ninth grade and spend all of high school trying to catch up to that. So I think that the most important thing for ninth graders to realize is from the beginning, what they do matters. They need to make sure that they are not setting themselves up for digging a hole that they are trying to get out of.”

Many ninth graders don’t realize that what they do matters. They don’t know that their first year counts towards the rest of high school. The seniors at Fraser High school learned their lesson and are now prepared for the real world.

“Do not take this year for granted. High school will only get more difficult, and the better that they do, the better they will set themselves up to do for the rest of high school.” said Mitchell.

Seniors are giving more advice to the freshmen in hopes they will take the advice and act upon it.

“Take it seriously. No one will be able to stress that enough. Don’t blow your classes off, just get it done so you don’t have to worry about falling behind. Once you’re behind it’s hard to catch back up. Get involved in school activities. You only get to do your freshmen year once.” said Vollen.

So for the freshmen of FHS, take this year seriously. Don’t blow your classes and make this first year of high school count and mean something. Have fun with this year, but don’t fall behind. Ask teachers for help if you need the help. Most importantly, get involved in the school activities and make new friends. Enjoy your first year of high school.