High School for most Americans is a short time of their lives that will have an incredibly out-sized influence on their future and lives as a whole. It could be decades after you graduate, and people may still recognize you from that one time you were in their 5th-period biology class in 10th grade. How you do in High School, from academics to your social life, will determine your future for you before you even know it. It can help send you to a community college or Oxford, and it all is determined by how much time you spend caring about it. If you, like me about three years ago, don’t really know what you want to do with your time in high school or don’t want to end up in my situation, then you have come to the perfect article. I’ll help give you an assorted list of tips, pieces of advice, and other tidbits that will (hopefully) give you an easier time in high school than I had.

Let’s start with what (I think) is the most important part of your social life in high school: HYGIENE. That scary, nebulous term that mostly centers on if you look nice and if you don’t smell horrible at 7:30 in the morning. Now, for most students, especially Freshmen, this is a difficult task to achieve. Most students likely don’t even know what the concept of a “deodorant” is before Junior year, and by that time they have a car to worry about, so some people STILL forget their hygiene! I’ve done a few pieces on Hygiene (specifically cleanliness) before, and I’ll reiterate: wear your deodorant. Outside of just getting someone to like you, your hygiene can also determine if you get that summer job or internship with a large corporation. If you show up to the Interview wearing a pair of pajama pants, smelling like B.O, and having greasy hair, you probably won’t get the job you want (unless you want to work at Papa Johns). 

I’ll continue with being PERSONABLE. Being personable means being friendly, approachable, and helpful (not overly helpful, don’t be a doormat) to others. Being friendly to others may be difficult at this age, but trust me, it isn’t as bad as you think it is. If, like me, you’re going to the only high school for 40 miles around, a bunch of kids from dozens of different middle schools will all be tossed into the same building, and most won’t know each other. In addition, if it’s your first day in that building, you won’t know where anything is or know any of your teachers. So, use that relatable situation to make friends and build connections. Now, one tip for this is to not be weird. Don’t “come on” to people too quickly, figure out their personalities and see if you want to be friends with them. At first, they may not want to talk to you 24/7 or hang out with you all the time, so don’t push your goodwill with someone to try and force them to be friends with you. That is, honestly, very weird, and if someone did that to me I wouldn’t want to talk to them much, either.