I feel like this semester was different for me compared to all the previous ones. The first few days of the school year was actually the most fun I’ve had in school for a long time. Of course we didn’t have a lot of homework or any assessments yet, but I had fun meeting my old friends in my new schedule and just being able to relax

in school just doing introductory activities. I took the start of this year very easily, just doing what I needed to do like my homework, studying/preparing for assessments, and participating in my clubs. Since my classes this year doesn’t have as much of a workload compared to last year, I had a lot more time to relax and do my own things at home.

However, in the middle of September, I suddenly fell ill from a sickness I never found out what it was. When I went to the doctor, all they did was test me for Covid but I was negative so that wasn’t really helpful. Anyway, I was pretty much out cold for an entire week. My days were spent sleeping, taking medicine, watching something while I ate and talking online until I get tired. At the end of the week, I wasn’t even fully recovered, but just good enough to go to school. At this point I already had to catch up on a week of school since I wasn’t able to get any work done while I was ill, so I knew that I couldn’t afford to miss any more days of school. 

When I go back to school when I’m still sick, I’m sure this is very relatable. Every time I cough I was very conscious of the amount of noise it makes, especially since the time period was right after the Covid

pandemic. Even worse was that the cough stayed for like an entire month to the point where I went to the doctor again, and this time got antibiotics that I don’t know if they really helped. But in the end it was just the passing of time for the cough to go away to how I am now. Back on the topic of school, I had to spend another entire week just to catch up on math, and then spent the next week catching up on my other classes, which was manageable since they didn’t have that much of a workload. 

However, at that point of time, the college applications early action deadline was only a few weeks away, so I was still very busy writing all of them after catching up on my academics. Speaking of college applications, I never knew how much research can go into them. Specifically for the why your major and why at this school supplemental, I first researched information about my major and companies where I could use my degree in. It was only cuz of it that I’m now familiar with big companies I might also be interested in working for in the future. Then I researched about the classes and research programs each school had to offer, and there were way more research programs than I would think there would be. So I had to narrow them down on the ones that relate the most to my major. 

After researching was putting it all together. I created a list of words I thought would be good and used them in all my supplementals. In fact, after writing the first one I was essentially just copy pasting the different classes and research programs into the same format. Moreover, for the other supplementals they made me think about things in my life that I didn’t see it as that way before. In particular, about how my interest in foreign music and having online friends led me to learn more about other countries and cultures. 

Now away from academics and things related to college applications, I learned to value my friends more, especially since this is our last year together. I always take them for granted just in my classes but this year and last summer I’ve started to value them more outside of school. From just hanging out at a friend’s house to going to hotpot, these experiences are going to be the one I value in the future, not my academics. My biggest piece of advice for new seniors is to basically pretend that senioritis doesn’t exist. It essentially became my excuse for slacking off in school when I should’ve kept trying my best like I did last year. Next semester, although during which college decisions will have came out, I’m still going to try my best in all my classes to finish the year strong. Although it may not matter in the grand scheme of things, no matter what, doing well in school is still good not only for your grades but for your mental health.