Going into high school can be scary for many students, however many people realize how much they miss high school after leaving. Leaning on the advice of graduates might help with the issue of regretting high school experiences.
Suhas Shekar graduated from Milpitas High School in 2018 and attended UC Santa Cruz from 2018 to 2021. He graduated as a computer science major and currently works as a programmer, he said.
“It (high school) was a mixed bag,” Shekar said. “A lot of it was chill because it was fun hanging out with my friends after school and during the breaks. I liked a lot of the teachers there — there were some that I think did a good job making the classes captivating,” Shekar said.
Shekar said he regrets not joining speech and debate and quiz bowl, but is glad he took advantage of summer classes, which allowed him to graduate earlier from college, he said.
Shekar’s advice to current high schoolers was to “take it easy and let go.”
“It’s only four years,” Shekar said. “Looking back now, I really was too anxious and kind of nervous all the time. I was too scared to try all these clubs,” he said. “Trying them probably would have made for better memories and better skills to pick up on cause it bites you later on.”
Isabella Kellas graduated from MHS in 2021, and was a senior during the quarantine. She is currently attending UC Berkeley as a second-year public health major, she said.
“I really liked my experience at MHS,” Kellas said. “I feel like I was pretty involved throughout my four years. My freshman year, I was involved in sports; I did cross country and soccer. For the rest of high school, I was a part of ASB,” she said. “I liked it (MHS) because I was always doing something, and I was always on campus. I also did the Trojans Olympics for all the years I was there, and I liked the socials. It was nice being able to spend time with my class and decorate for the events.”
The COVID pandemic was difficult and caused Kellas to lose some of her motivation, she said.
“I’ve heard, ‘Oh, you seniors are lucky. You get all these cool events,’ and my class didn’t get to experience that,” Kellas said. “Working on college apps and being stuck at home was not the best experience. But, it’s over now, so I’m fine.”
Kellas advised current high schoolers to participate in school events and dress up for spirit days.
“At the end of the day, even if it looks lame from the outside, it’s actually really fun if you participate with the crowd and just have fun,” Kellas said. “It is one of those memories to look back on.”
Fengyi Huang graduated from MHS in 2022, and currently attends UC Berkeley. He is a first-year computer science major and was the valedictorian of the class of 2022.
“The biggest thing I miss about MHS is talking to people,” Huang said. “There’s just a lot of people that I really enjoyed hanging out with, but now it’s very hard since we’re all off to college,” Huang said.
In college, Huang is branching out by joining different clubs, such as a finance and business consulting club called Ascend, he said.
“Some advice I’d probably give is that you have your four years here, you should make the most of them, especially since this is probably one of the last times that you’ll be able to spend this time with all your friends here at high school. Try to not take things way too seriously, because you want to be able to look back at this time and see to say that you’ve enjoyed a lot of things,” Huang said.