Advice for Incoming Freshman!

Many students at Cavelero are leaving their 8th-grade year and therefore preparing to become freshmen. Although 9th-grade students will not attend Lake Stevens High School until their own sophomore year, 9th-grade Cavelero students are still in high school, which means that this is the year everything starts to matter. You might have taken it easy or maybe even slacked off a little while you were in 8th grade, but after summer ends, you are going to have a rude awakening. But it doesn’t have to be as hard or scary as it may seem.

 There is a lot of pressure riding on you as a 9th grader to set up good habits and a strong work ethic for the next 4 years. This can be especially hard if you maybe didn’t pay attention or focus on your grades as much throughout middle school. However, there are ways to work around it and start building good study habits this year. If you don’t start working on your grades, study habits, punctuality, and work ethic this year when will you start? 9th-grade Cavelero student Katya Vladyko says, “For now, while you are an 8th grader, just work your hardest because next year is when your grades are going to really count towards what you want to do in your future.” There are only a few weeks left in the school year but that doesn’t mean for these last two weeks you should slack off, you need to work your hardest right to the end. Because even for 8th graders finals week is right around the corner and you want to make sure that you are doing as best you can on your finals. 9th-grade Cavelero student Dara Olotu says “One thing I do in order to prepare for finals is studying with friends that will actually help and not distract you.” 

That being said, you need to make sure that you are still leaving time for things you enjoy. Your freshman year will most likely have a lot of pressure riding on it and with pressure comes stress, but that does not mean that you still can’t have a good time or that your entire year will be stressful. Having a good school-life balance is very important. Which means being involved in the school,  Cavelero’s principal Dr. Sellers speaks about the importance of being involved in the school community by saying, “We encourage all of our incoming students to really be a part of the school. Join a club, join sports, join band. Just make sure that you feel like a part of Cavelero and all the great things that we have to offer.”

9th-grade Cavelero student Tristan Bradford, who has not only been involved in school sports but also our school’s 9th-grade leadership class, says “Just make sure you get all of your assignments in, as long as you do that it’s really not that difficult, but also join sports get involved, it’s really fun and you’ll make a lot of friends that way.” 

I hope this was helpful and good luck to all the incoming 8th and 9th graders along with the current 9th graders moving on to the high school!