By Paislee Terry
Freshman year and senior year may happen at the same school, but they feel like two totally different worlds.
Senior Myla Fink said ”she has fulfilled what her freshman self wanted to happen in high school, and she would be very proud of me today.”
Myla will be going to the college she has always wanted to go to, Indiana University.
She had many challenges throughout the years as many freshmen do. Coming into high school, she felt the pressure to find her friend group along with becoming the person she wants to be, instead of the person others want her to be.
While Myla was overcoming challenges that high school brought her, she learned many life lessons along the way.
The most important lesson she learned was to never fall behind. High school brings many responsibilities not only for you now but future you as well.
“It pays off, especially when you’re applying to colleges,” Myla said.
One big change students talked about was staying involved in activities. At the start of high school, many students joined clubs, played sports, and tried new things.
“I was in student council and volleyball my freshman year, but I’m not in them anymore. I’m still involved, just not as much,” Myla said.
Unlike Myla, senior Chase Flannery feels his involvement hasn’t changed much since freshman year.
While some students try more activities at first, Chase found what he enjoyed and stuck with it, playing baseball all four years.
Chase said his high school experience looked a little different with him transferring schools, coming from Muncie Central after his sophomore year.
“I never would have expected a transfer to go the way it has,” Chase said.
Chase has said since freshman year he goes by the philosophy that studying is doubting yourself,.
“I haven’t studied for anything since probably my freshman year,” he said.
Although his involvement, and how he’s studied hasn’t changed, Chase’s goals and dreams sure have.
“My freshman year I was aiming to play baseball in college and do something like that, but now I’m just planning on going to Cincinnati and studying medical imaging,” Chase said.
He plans on achieving all these goals in college from the challenges he faced in his high school career
From freshman year to senior year he has had some ups and downs with getting used to hard classes to the basics of finding good friendships.
College classes can get hard and time consuming but he believes that high school has prepared him for this challenge.
“Getting used to having so many people around and adjusting to the different style of classes was very hard for me at first,” Chase said.
By his side, his good friend Gavin Case, has had some big changes from freshman year to senior year also. Similar to Chase, Gavin’s involvement also didn’t change much.
“I played baseball, and I played basketball my freshman year but ever since then everything has been the same,” Gavin said.
They both are on the varsity baseball team their senior year and have gotten closer as the season went on.
Gavin matured since his freshman year and realized to take stuff seriously when needed which has helped him improve academically.
“I joked around a little bit too much. I didn’t really take grades seriously,” Gavin said. “ I have better grades now. I do better academically.”
Although Gavin has learned to take some things seriously, he still feels it is important to “just have fun” while you can.
Also like Chase, Gavin’s goals and aspirations after high school have changed. When Gavin was a freshman he planned on going to Indiana University for college, but now plans to be an electrician after he graduates.
Finishing four years of schooling in the same school also means learning some valuable lessons along the way. One of Gavin’s biggest lessons that he learned is that teachers are actually there for you.
“Most of them actually really care about the students and want to help them,” Gavin said.
No matter if it’s the color you dye your hair, the classes you take, the people you’re friends with, or even what you are aiming for in your future, everyone is bound to change. And that is okay as long as you are proud of the person you are becoming and only changing for yourself.
