For the Class of 2022, May marks not only the end of April showers, but the end of their time at Lab. Seniors give advice on work strategies, social life, following passions and more.

Follow your interests:

“I would say the advice I would give to my freshman self is don’t do things for college, do things that you’re genuinely interested in and the success that you hope to have will probably follow.” — Annika Ludwig

“Be bold, be creative, be courageous. Go out of your comfort zone.” — Anthea Dill

“My advice to my freshman self would be to explore all the interests you have, little and small, because it only gets harder to do later in high school.” — Jana Reiser

“Opportunities will fly right over your head so don’t let the time fly and go out and join clubs and sports. By the time senior year hits you’ve done nothing.” — Claire Barbosa

Stay on top of it:

“Typically in freshman year you don’t have a lot going on. Things are more hectic throughout the rest of high school. Work hard on your grades.” — Gracie Norton

“Plan ahead for the classes you would take, make sure you have enough free periods in the day because knowing now, you need those to get your homework done. Plan out your years.” — Erik Sveen-Erling

“My advice to my freshman self is to remain focused and keep working hard. Even if it seems like you’re at a dead end, just keep pushing until the end of the year because you’ll have a lot of free time during the spring breaks, winter breaks, summer breaks. So whatever you do, whether it’s basketball, academics, just keep going. Head high.” — Zach Smith

“My advice to my freshman self would be to get a calendar, get a schedule, and actually put stuff in that schedule and then follow that said schedule.” — Kennedi Bickham

“Appreciate your teachers. They work really hard. Sometimes they can be difficult, but they really do care about their students.” — Ben Sachs

“My advice would be to use the writer’s center for all your writing projects: for English or history, or anything like that. Even when you get in the college application process it’s very important and should be utilized.” — Todd Hao

Keep calm and carry on:

“I would tell my freshman self to just not stress out so much. Your high school years are gonna end up different than you think they are and you’re gonna make different friends than you might expect.” — Jessica Slear

“I’d say my advice to my freshman self would be ‘Don’t take everything so seriously.’ Like, I stress myself out a lot over things that I end up just not getting done because I was just too panicked to do anything.” — Khairy Barnes

“My advice to my freshman self would be to try and have a little bit more fun, branch out, have a good time, as opposed to focus on academics and academics only.” — Jesse Gell

“My advice to my freshman self is nothing is as bad as it seems, so take a deep breath and figure it out.” — Jaedyn Hudson