Final Messages to Underclassman from Seniors With Experience

By Christino Maldonado, Emerson Maldonado and Julio Ramirez

Dear, Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Super Seniors:

This is to give all of you some advice for your future here at West Hempstead.

1. Focus on your grades! It’s really hard to fail, I promise you that if you put a little bit of effort into your school work you’ll easily be in the 80s. 
2. Save your money. Lots of things to pay for your senior year. No joke you'll need like 1,000 dollars to cover most of the senior year expenses. 
3. It's never too early to look at colleges, find a college you like with your major, and show you’re interested with an email and make sure you meet all the academic requirements, For you student-athletes it's better to start emailing colleges throughout your sophomore-junior year.
4. Stay out of trouble, it’s not funny, it’s not cool, you’re just giving everyone a hard time and creating a bad rep for yourself.
5. Join clubs, sports, and other after-school activities. Colleges love a student who is involved with their school and you want to stand out in a sea of “just students.” Be a student-athlete, be a volunteer, be a club president.
6. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, that just means you’re better off being nice and sweet than sour and rude to your classmates or teachers because at one point you’re going to need help from them, trust me! Your going to need those teacher recommendations senior year so check yourself before you wreck yourself. 
7. A good night's sleep is KEY, rest up the night before to have energy the next day it'll make school so much easier, for you athletes especially, a full day of school and then practice isn’t fun on 5 hours of sleep, you risk injury and you perform poorly giving someone else a shot to take your spot. 
8. “Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today”, this was a huge struggle for me. When you get work, do it when you can because work will pile up from other classes and it’s super stressful doing seven homeworks the night before. 
9. USE THE LIBRARY!!! This place is so underrated, as a freshman I used to think going to the library was lame. As I got older, I used it more and it helped a lot, a quiet place to do work/study, air-conditioned, nice librarians, comfortable seats and FREE, UNLIMITED PRINTER USE.
10. Take advantage of what you have here. The teachers, counselors, APs, everyone here wants the best for you, after high school, you’ll never find a group of people who are this willing to go out of there way to help you. You’d be surprised with all the knowledge they have, so go to them for help in anything.
11. Be ready for any work that is given to you. Just because you get an assignment 2 weeks before it’s due doesn’t mean you do it last second. Do your work ahead of time and you will be less stressed out.