At the end of my junior year at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, I was stressing about being a senior at the best high school in my state. It turns out that almost all juniors here do the same thing, and often times we get the same advice: “Don’t worry, senior year is easy.” I’m here to tell you that is not true. At all.

Whenever I started attending MSMS I knew that I wanted to be as involved as I possibly could. To me, this meant not only being members of several clubs, but being officers of several clubs. This carried over to my senior year and I started the year off busy: president/co-president of four clubs, directing/producing a documentary series, Photography Editor for the school newspaper, work service under the school’s Coordinator for Alumni and Public Relations, and starting in January, a mentorship at Columbus’ local TV station WCBI.

I do not regret doing any one particular thing; but, I do regret trying to do it all at once. What I did wrong is that I did not prioritize my interests. I wanted to everything that I possibly could that involved my interests. I did not factor this in with the workload of an MSMS senior or with the stress of trying to figure out what I am going to do for the next four years of my life, which becomes increasingly more present as the goes on.

Here is my advice: you have to take everything into consideration when planning out your senior year. Schoolwork, clubs, sports, college, sleep (okay you are going to have to sleep no matter what, but you get my point). Prioritize what you need (good grades, sleep) and what you want (clubs, sports, extracurriculars) and then go from there. Once you get those things figured out, it will be much easier to plan how you want to spend your year.

Also, you cannot forget about freetime. I have heard every senior say something along the lines of “I wish I spent more times with my friends and not stressing about school.” This is something that you have to keep in mind. Without freetime, when will you decide where you are going to college, hangout with your friends, or take a nap on that rainy afternoon.

One fantastic thing about attending MSMS is that you are getting the college experience two years early. Take advantage of this and practice good scheduling before you get into college/the real world. Many people start college and do the same thing I did at the beginning of my senior year. It is better to make this mistake before you get to college, or ideally, not at all.

Everyone says to stop and smell the roses. Packing your schedule full of activities makes it a lot harder to do so.