There’s a common understanding that high school is supposed to be a big transition for young teenagers and serve as a foundation for who one will become in life, and honestly, I think that’s true. So this column goes out to those of you who have some time left to continue, some time left to cherish.

Figure yourself out early. Try and figure out who you are as a person and who you would like yourself to become as early as you can. This sounds like a daunting task, but in reality it’s simple. Branch out freshman and sophomore year. No matter what you think might happen, take a chance and do not under any circumstances limit yourself, because you are the only that can hold yourself back from truly being who you are and making high school everything that you want it to be.

Now how could that be any more cliché? But it’s true. Freshman year, I tried a lot of things. I went on Snowball twice, and I loved it. I had experiences that I will never forget, but when the time came to apply for staff, I didn’t because I was too afraid. I was afraid that I wouldn’t get on. I was afraid that the interview would be scary (especially with that bearded weird guy sitting across the table from me, Hey Stormont) and I just thought that I wouldn’t fit in. That was a mistake, one that I will regret for a long time.

I didn’t figure myself out until wrestling season of my junior year of high school, and I know this sounds crazy, but at that point, high school was more than half over. I can’t help but thinking that I might have missed something in those first two years.

At any rate, I owe a lot of my life today to the sport of wrestling and the team that I was so fortunate to be a part of. It’s honestly taught me so much.

I’ve learned to be confident in myself and in everything that I do. As I’m sure many of you know, I’m not a very self-conscious person and not much usually gets to me. Because of this, I’ve learned that the most important opinion in my life is my own. So here’s my advice, be confident in who you are as a person and don’t take into account other people’s negative opinions. As my mentor Steven Campbell used to say, “Keep doing you” and don’t worry about what other people will think of you. This is why I wrote all of those shameless columns about wrestling that you all enjoyed so much.

With this being said, as you start to figure out who you are, you will develop a reputation that will follow you no matter how hard you try to escape it, or where you go in life. And your reputation often gets to people and places before you do. I understand that I was often less than kind to people (Claire Quinlan and Bailey Blum, I apologize) but I’m going to use this as another lesson. With establishing who you are, make sure that you’re okay with the reputation that you’ve developed as well. Like I said earlier, I’m confident in who I am, but if I had the chance, I would go back and maybe do some things differently, to let people know that I’m really not a rude, or ignorant individual to say the least.

Don’t ever expect anything. That’s another lesson I’ve learned. This can apply anywhere. My senior year of wrestling, I expected myself to be good. It was my second year on varsity and I had put in a decent amount of work in the offseason. Let’s just say my season was less than pretty. I also expected to get into all the colleges that I applied to, and didn’t put as much work into the college process as I should have. Don’t get me wrong, Mizzou is a good school (shout out to you Gabbie Gresge, #journalism never stops) but that process was a wake up call. It let me know that there were areas where I slacked off in and things that I could’ve changed. If you want something, no matter what it is, put the work in. Do not expect it.

I want to clear one thing up. I’m a happy kid. I know this column sounds like a bit of a pity party, but I really do love my life, and a big part of that is my friends.

I think the dynamic that my group of friends has is special, so my advice is find a group of friends that you can be more than friends with. My best friends are the guys on the wrestling team that I’ve spent four years getting to know and beating the hell out of, and at this point we’re a family. Find a group where you can be a family, where you’d do anything for anyone and they would do the same for you.

And that friend group doesn’t always have to be perfect. You don’t have to be the most popular kids in the school, and everyone doesn’t have to be the same. Coming into high school, I never thought that some day a doctor, a Division III football star, a frat boy, a creatine enraged psychopath, a Serbian bodybuilder, a funky hipster, a nerd and a blonde god would become my friend group. But I think that’s why we’re so great, and honestly I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Once you find this group, make the most of it. Make memories that will last you a lifetime. My friends and I have certainly done so. We once told Niko Harvel that it was a great idea to light his entire body on fire, and that we would take care of him if it went bad. We’ve dabbled with burying dead dogs (figuratively and literally), done our fair share of promoting an eco-friendly lifestyle by recycling, made more omelets than should be allowed by law and even went swimming a couple times.

So I guess the overarching idea that I’m trying to get at here is don’t have any regrets. Try to live your high school career in a way where you won’t get to the end and wish that you did things differently, because trust me, it’s not a good feeling. Figure out what is important to you, and be confident in who you are. I know people always stress the importance of grades, but high school is honestly so much more than that. Once you figure out who you are and find your friend group, you can truly make high school what it’s supposed to be, the best four years of your life.