As graduation\u00a0nears, many seniors look\u00a0back\u00a0on\u00a0their\u00a0freshman\u00a0year of high school and\u00a0realize how much they have\u00a0changed.\u00a0What were once challenges four years\u00a0ago helped them grow into the\u00a0seniors\u00a0they now are.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many seniors entered high school with similar expectations\u00a0to each other,\u00a0and they\u00a0thought it would be\u00a0academically\u00a0challenging.\u00a0Reva\u00a0Wolchok, a senior at Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS), said, \u201cI expected high school to be very intense and difficult,\u00a0and also\u00a0expected\u00a0a very active\u00a0social life. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0see high school as very academically intense anymore. Classes are hard, but I\u00a0know\u00a0that college will be\u00a0harder.\u201d She explained that\u00a0her academic goals shifted from\u00a0just getting all A\u2019s to truly learning what she is interested in.\u00a0Baxly\u00a0Hines, a senior at PVHS,\u00a0expected high school to be\u00a0really hard, so he\u00a0prepared for this by\u00a0creating a study schedule that worked for him. He said, \u201cI came up with a study plan and started using a\u00a0planner which made everything easier for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shin, a senior at PVHS, explained that she thought that high school was going to be harder than how it turned out to be, so she found ways to deal with the rigor.\u00a0She said, \u201cI used to be really invested in AP classes until they became too consuming for me, and I realized that I wanted to go to college for softball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eva\u00a0Garcia, a senior at PVHS,\u00a0entered her\u00a0freshman\u00a0year nervous about the social aspects of high school because she was afraid that it\u00a0would be difficult to make friends. She said, \u201cI was scared because I came from a small, private school and had no idea how high school even works.\u00a0I felt that the change\u00a0was going to be scary because I\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0going to make any friends but instead, I have made countless friends and memories at PVHS\u00a0and now see that everything will always work out.\u201d\u00a0She explained that during her experience in high school she learned to stop\u00a0being invested\u00a0into\u00a0what other people think of her.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n After four years, many seniors\u00a0participated\u00a0in extracurricular activities that interested them.\u00a0Garcia explained that doing sports, such as cross country and ballet, helped her to\u00a0manage school and sports while also making new friends.\u00a0Wolchock\u00a0said, \u201cMost of my best friends came from\u00a0dance.\u00a0Also,\u00a0a lot of my extracurriculars\u00a0were rooted in my Jewish identity, so they made\u00a0me\u00a0truly understand\u00a0my own values.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goals of seniors for their lives after graduating high school\u00a0have\u00a0changed throughout\u00a0the years. Garcia\u00a0said, \u201cFreshman year, I was so focused on adjusting to the high school life, but over time my goals\u00a0became\u00a0more about building skills\u00a0that I\u2019ll use in the real world and preparing to go to college.\u201d\u00a0Wolchok\u00a0explained that\u00a0her goals for her future\u00a0have also changed. \u201cBefore coming into high\u00a0school,\u00a0I wanted to be a veterinarian but now I want to do business. High school has taught me how much I like networking and using social connections to succeed.\u201d\u00a0Hines said, \u201cMy\u00a0plans for the future\u00a0were going to college and becoming a doctor. It\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0the plan that changed, but it was\u00a0more\u00a0how I am going to achieve this.\u00a0I set up small goals at\u00a0the\u00a0University of Florida on what I need to do and hopefully set myself up for medical school\u00a0in the near future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students were able to\u00a0overcome difficult personal challenges.\u00a0Garcia struggled with public speaking and\u00a0presentations but\u00a0explained that after taking American Sign Language all throughout high school, her anxiety\u00a0reduced,\u00a0and she was able to approach presenting with more confidence.\u00a0\u201cI became more social and\u00a0talkative, and noticed that when I acted like my true self around people,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easier to stay social. With\u00a0this\u00a0I was able to build many friendships,\u201d she said.\u00a0Shin explained that she gained\u00a0trust in herself, saying, \u201cI now don\u2019t care as much about what others think, and I believe that\u2019s something everyone should do.\u201d\u00a0Wolchok\u2019s\u00a0perspective on friendships\u00a0changed\u00a0during\u00a0the past few years, saying, \u201cI understand how important relationships are for mental health. My friends are always there for\u00a0me,\u00a0and I look forward to finding meaningful friendships in college.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n After years of\u00a0difficult classes, demanding extracurriculars, and many lessons learned,\u00a0they now have\u00a0goals of what\u00a0truly interests\u00a0them\u00a0for the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graphic by Philip Berkwit<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Lucia Gabriel As graduation\u00a0nears, many seniors look\u00a0back\u00a0on\u00a0their\u00a0freshman\u00a0year of high school and\u00a0realize how much they have\u00a0changed.\u00a0What were once challenges four years\u00a0ago helped them grow into the\u00a0seniors\u00a0they now are.\u00a0 Many seniors entered high school with similar expectations\u00a0to each other,\u00a0and they\u00a0thought it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[661,38,887,138,44,149],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Senior-reflection-on-high-school-lucia.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8607,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions\/8607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
“I expected high school to be very intense and difficult, and also expected a very active social life”<\/p>Reva wolchok (12)<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n