Dear incoming FVHS freshmen,

Hello! My name is Hailey and I’m a graduating sophomore and incoming junior. I just wanted to share a message that will hopefully help any of you guys. You’re graduating from middle school and entering high school. It does seem scary but I promise, it’s almost the same. It’s just a new campus and new faces but on the positive side, that means you have more opportunity to make friends with people you’ve never met before! New teachers, new classes, everything is a new chance and you get a clean slate. Personally for me, I really liked freshman year. I freaked out over nothing at all and it was pretty enjoyable. How your year goes depends on you. For the incoming freshman, I suggest you join clubs that appeal to you and participate in the school’s events. My year was going good but then COVID hit me and the second half of my year was taken away. We all had to switch to online and it was pretty confusing since everything was new. Thankfully, I got through the year and finished my first year of high school. Then I had to sit through quarantine and find ways to cure my boredom. Finally in September, school started again. This time I was nervous because this was going to be my first year doing school completely different from what I was usually used to. At first I was getting the hang of it but as time flew by, I was just getting tired and even more tired. School was extremely hard for me and I didn’t know how to handle it. I wasn’t able to go to my parents for help because all they would do was yell at me for how terrible I was doing. Sometimes I would be able to pick myself up and get on top of my work, but soon after that I would just plateau again. I just lost all motivation to do any type of school work. At some point, I managed to gain a little motivation and I would like to thank my friends for that. They were there for me and tried to help me in every single way. In the end, I did start getting back into the groove of school and my mental health became a lot better. My message to you is that no matter how hard times get, just persevere and you’ll get through it. No matter what you think, there will always be someone out there who’s looking out for you. You just have to take the time and get to know those people or that person. I’m very thankful that my friends are patient with me and are there for me for education purposes and any type of problems that I’m having in my life. This whole year has definitely been something, but it has taught me who my true friends are. So if any of you future freshman are feeling down and just awful, remember my words that there’s someone out there who can help you and that life is always going to have ups and downs. Life is never perfect, so just live out there to the fullest and enjoy whatever time you have now.

Sincerely,
Hailey