When I first joined The Web my sophomore year, I remember thinking to myself that when I wrote my senior column, it would be full of wisdom and would end up inspiring others and hopefully, bring some students to tears. Now that I am a senior and am writing my column, I have realized that I do not have the energy nor the motivation for that and so I am just going to list off some advice.

1. Get involved! It doesn’t matter what you do, but do something. Being involved can help you discover passions that you didn’t know you had, and you can seriously meet some amazing people.
2. Have school pride! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that school pride seems to be shrinking, and honestly I think it’s sad. We all go to the same school, and you should be proud of what your peers accomplish. In no way is it “cool” to not cheer at football games, not go to dances like Dance Marathon, or just not have basic school pride so underclassmen, start caring about your school and the people in it.
3. Get close to a teacher! I wasn’t very close with any teachers my freshman or sophomore year, but junior year I started to get close with Mrs. Seibert. I got to work closely with Mrs. Seibert during my senior year, and now, she is like my second mom. I couldn’t imagine not having Mrs. Seibert in my life, and being close with her makes school so much more enjoyable.
4. Have a balance! You can not be all work and no play. You also can not be all play and no work. You need to have a balance because if you don’t, you will probably end up regretting it later.
5. Work hard as a freshman/sophomore! I was a tryhard my freshman and sophomore year, and honestly it is saving my GPA. I still try (somewhat) in my current classes, but I am a lot less worried about having a good GPA for college. If you don’t think you have the motivation to do your work as a freshman/sophomore, you are going to be screwed when you are a junior/senior.
6. Join The Web! The Web has been my favorite class for the last three years, and I am so happy I joined. I love the people, and you get to see and talk to THE Darin Michael Johnson so if that’s not a good enough reason, I don’t know what is.

I think I’ve said all I wanted to say so on that note, bye Ames High, it’s been a good one.