Tips For High School Seniors, Heck, High School-ers in General

It’s like they always say, retrospective is always twenty-twenty. The ever-celebrated high school senior year is an incredibly emotion filled time period. The stress of college applications, trying to figure out what career you want to do, and how you interact with friends and relationships in this last year of being home can weigh on the minds of seniors. It certainly did with me! I am going to share some of my personal experience and then, based on my experience, some tips on how to prosper through the year way better than I did. While I do have regrets, I have faith that the Mercy of God doesn’t need me to be good to still be Goodness.

During my senior year I, like majority of seniors, did not really care for academics in my last year. I spent most of my time in class goofing off or complaining about the simplest of homework assignments or time I had to spend studying. Many times I would blow them off and just faked it until I sort of made it on the tests. I procrastinated way too long on my applications which are, in reality, pretty easy finish.

As I said in my previous article, I spent a lot of time despairing about discernment and acting as if my discernment or philosophical thoughts were more important than the tasks at hand. I would act as if the good God was doing through me at church made up for the lack of goodness I was showing at my primary vocation of  being a good student. I don’t think there has ever been a year where I have been more of a flirt, allowing for thoughts of girls to distract me from the task at hand.

One of the biggest struggles was, for me, how do I act in friendships that I am not sure how to maintain within a year’s time, or what do I do with friendships that aren’t leading me closer to Christ? Do I cut them off or do I grin and bear it?

An even bigger struggle was my total lack of a prayer life, or rather, the way I would pray. I would demand God for answers and for those answers to be the answers that I wanted to hear.

 

So. based on these experiences, here are some tips:

 

1. Glorify God in everything that you do. God is present in every moment of every day, even in the pettiest of assignments. Learn patience.
2. Get your stupid applications and essays done.
3.  It gets really hard to keep being everyone’s friend. You get a little tired of the people you have seen for the past four (maybe longer years). Keep being Christ to them throughout the end. People will always disappoint you, because people will always be sinners. You can rest when you’re dead. (Just kidding, if the person is seriously harming you certainly end contact with someone but not for petty reasons.) (One of my biggest regrets. Don’t abandon people who need Jesus).
4. You don’t really need to be dating this year. This one is hard because there are beautiful and good people in the world. But this is a year where you need to be realistic about every kind of relationship you have. A friendship is way more likely to last than a few months of intimacy. (If you meet your spouse and date through college I’ll buy you a drink when we are both drinking age.)
5. Discern where God wants you to be next year.
6. For discerning men: Most likely by this point you have missed the opportunity to get into a seminary your freshman year of college. Don’t freak out about discernment. To discern is to be free. It’s okay to go to college.
7. PRAY. I know this is a cliché, and I know I just rhymed. Ain’t that mighty fine. But if you are not making it a daily goal to pray and to make God a serious part of your day, clarity will be much harder to obtain. The voice of the Good Lord comes in all forms like specific callings, stirrings in your heart, peace, silence even. Learn to let God’s will be your will and not the other way around.

You are okay, you are gonna make it through this year. Cherish the moments with your friends. Don’t forget to have fun too, it is senior year for crying out loud.

Jesus loves you more than you know and will never be outdone in generosity, so may the good work he has begun in you be brought to fulfillment.

Thanks and Gig’em,

Joshua