Dear me in freshman year,

I think I should start by addressing the elephant in the room: yes, I did discover time travel. It turns out that one of BCA’s electron microscopes has the perfect equipment for sending messages into the past. You’re probably wondering how high school went for you. Unfortunately, to avoid screwing up the space-time continuum, you are from a different dimension from me, so I can’t tell you your future exactly. However, I can give you some advice.

Don’t think that you will be like your parents. You won’t be like your mom and get all 100s in your sophomore year—in fact, that year I flirted with some Cs and Ds due to my newfound suicidal ideation. You won’t be like your dad and be the life of the party—in fact, I was never invited to one. Your high school experience will be different than you thought, but that’s not a bad thing. Even if as a whole it isn’t good, there will be some moments that are real gems. You’re also practically guaranteed to get into a good college, so please don’t worry too much.

Do the things you want to do. High school is short, so if you are even a little interested in some club or activity, try it. You can always ditch the stuff you don’t like. In freshman year, trimester 2 is a lot more rigorous than trimester 1, so I recommend beginning some stuff right from the start. If you want to be part of Chamber Choir but doubt you’re good enough, try out anyway. If you’re obsessed with someone, ask them out to pizza. My biggest regrets were the things I didn’t do.

At the same time, if you’re miserable because of some activity, drop it! I joined Model UN because I love politics, but I left after only three weeks because the level of outgoingness required was not for me (that’s a euphemism for “it gave me a debilitating level of anxiety”). Sure, it would have looked good on my college resume, but so do lots of other activities, including some I actually like. Looking out for yourself doesn’t make you weak or a failure, it makes you smart.

If you do your schoolwork while you’re in school, you can do fun things while you’re out of school. For the first time ever, you won’t be stuck in classes for the entire school day; you have free periods! Once you get a somewhat-stable friend group, your priority during your frees should be getting your work done. Otherwise, school just bleeds into everything and you can’t escape it, which sucks.

Though I can’t predict your future, I do know a few things for certain: you will make mistakes, you will fail a test, you will cry. But you will also make it through high school.

Good luck,

A slightly more mature, happier you in senior year (from another dimension)