Walking through the halls of LT in the month of March, you tend to hear a sound. It is the sound of pens nervously clicking and feet tapping restlessly. It’s that time of the year again, when seniors await the final and often most gruesome steps of their college decision, as juniors prepare to take ACT tests and struggle to balance their most difficult coursework, sophomores load their schedule up for the cursed junior year, and freshman eagerly await, to well, not be freshman anymore.

Somewhere, lost in all of this commotion and anguish, one thought never seems to occur: the thought of how we can make our high school experience more enjoyable. Adults are quick to say that high school and college are some of the best years of your life and to a degree I believe them. We will never be this free and young again. But lately, we’ve been shackling ourselves, with this collective idea that high school is just an audition for college.

I’m very aware of this lie. I fell for it for four long years, and by the time I figured it out, it was too late. There were too many classes I wanted to take: Improv, Art History, Psychology, Philosophy and the list goes on. Instead, I spent tireless hours trying to create that perfect schedule, the one that all colleges were looking for.

Don’t get me wrong, I love so many of the classes I’ve taken here. I’ve loved every second of my time in LION class as well as the WLTL Management. The English and Social Studies departments have always gifted me with amazing teachers and along with my interest in the studies, I’ve enjoyed every day in class for both subjects.

At this point in time, my math and science teachers are feeling a little left out. Believe me, it’s not your fault. I’ve just never really connected with your classes. I’ve never really dug in deep on a physics or math problem, and have rarely found myself enjoying about learning the subject. That’s my problem, not yours.

So what’s to say I shouldn’t have pursued Art History or Psychology? It surely would have looked less attractive on my transcript, but I would enjoy myself more, and engage myself in something that genuinely interested me. I would expand my knowledge base and learn something that didn’t leave me scratching my head, scrambling to catch up to the future doctors and engineers of the world who were already steps ahead.

It’s a genuine regret of mine. There are thousands of classes I wish I had taken at my time in LT, and I’ll never have the opportunity to take these classes as I focus more on my major and gen eds during college.

So please, I beg you, don’t make the same mistakes that I made. I know my class selection has been limited due to my commitment to LION and WLTL, but I know many friends who are in APs just for the sake of being in them and are hating it.

Maybe I’m too late for some of you. Many juniors have submitted their schedules, and these include AP classes that they have no interest in taking. But there is still time for you underclassmen. Don’t be afraid to ask your counselors if you can change your schedule, because at no moment in high school should you be taking a class to make your transcript look better when your passions lie in completely different places.