After 185 days of junior year, I can confidently say that junior year is hard. 

Everyone hears the stereotypes that junior year is the hardest year of high school because of standardized testing, but I disagree. Junior year is so hard because students are beginning to truly figure out the meaning of independence while staying afloat with a workload. 

This year I took four AP classes, one Wake Tech class, started a club, took on four new leadership positions, and joined three honors societies — too say the least, it was busy. From someone who has done it, here is my best advice to survive your junior year of high school. 

1. Have a support system 

Having a community of people that you trust is one of the most beneficial things a junior in high school can have. These are the people that a junior is going to be able to rant to, cry to, and spend their very little free time with.

Many people believe that it is important to have a lot of friends. The more a person has the happier they will be, right? Except, I think it is more important to have quality friends. 

A quality friend is someone that you can share the quiet moments with. During your junior year, it is important that your friends are uplifting and adaptive. As junior year progresses, students are inevitably going to become busier. Having quality friends will reduce stress because you will not be less concerned about having to maintain a friendship and spend more enjoying your relationships. 

My support system was one of the biggest reasons I made it through this year. When I was stressed out and crying in the parking lot, my best friend came to sit with me. When I needed to memorize a five page direct for mock trial, my boyfriend sat for hours and helped me learn. When I needed to rant about my very strong opinions of teaching styles, my mom was always home. 

These are the people you will lean on. These are the people that will build you up when you are feeling like junior year is out to get you. Hold on to these people and appreciate all the light they will bring into your life. 

2. Join clubs that you enjoy

During junior year, there is public stigma that students should be working on building their resume. It is during this time that students will join various clubs and honor societies because it seems like the club would be a good thing to tell colleges they were a part of. 

My suggestion to you is to only join clubs based on topics that you truly enjoy. There are so many clubs at Leesville that you are sure to find one that fits your interests. 

The reason I suggest this is because clubs take up a lot of time. Ask yourself, after a long day, am I really going to want to sit through this club meeting? If you join 10 clubs, but hate their subjects, it is going to feel like another chore. 

Clubs are supposed to be fun. They are a place to meet like minded people and extend on your current interests. 

This year I was a part of seven clubs including: Mock Trial, Leesville Liaisons, SpeakHER, Special Needs Awareness Club (SNAC), English Honor Society, National Honor Society, and Rho Kappa Honor Society. 

My attendance to each club directly correlated to how much I care about the subject. I went to every single Mock Trial meeting while I only went to about 75% of SNAC meetings. I needed an extra 30 minutes to take a break and eat lunch instead of going to a SNAC meeting. 

Joining clubs that you actually enjoy will encourage you to go to meetings, engage, and put in effort without it feeling like an extra burden. 

Some clubs are a lot of work. Mock Trial meets at least twice a week, preps for a regional competition, and has another trial during exam season. It is a club that must be worked on outside of school. A person will only succeed during trial if they take time to prepare and learn. 

It is clubs like Mock Trial that you must be fully prepared to commit your free time to because you are a part of a team. If you enjoy anything law related, Mock Trial will seem fun. Instead of feeling the weight of reading a 75 page case document, you will feel like you are reading a story. Time will pass and work will get done without it feeling like another thing to check off a to-do list. 

There are so many clubs at Leesville that students are bound to find one that aligns with their interests. During your junior year, join these specialized clubs instead of stacking your resume with clubs that mean nothing to your interests. 

3. Build in time to rest

It has already been established that junior year is busy, but there is always time for rest. Whether that be a nighttime bath or a 30 minute nap after school, be intentional about finding time for yourself. 

Self care is one of the easiest ways to maintain a busy lifestyle. If your mind and body are not rested, you will not be able to give 100% effort to things during the day. If not rested, you will be running off of fumes and your product will reflect that. 

I was never a person to rest. I would stay up until at least 12:00am every day claiming to be doing work. Since I built that habit, I started putting off work until late at night. I became comfortable with staying up late and being tired the next day. 

Taking time to sleep, watch a movie, or just not think about school is necessary to maintain your mental health and survive your junior year. 

Having rest time will separate school from everything else. Having rest time is necessary so you don’t feel like school and trying to be productive is taking over your life. 

While junior year may be hard, it is not impossible. By following these few pieces of advice, you will be on your way to a junior year that ends with a sense of accomplishment, happiness, and relief that it is over.