Don't Stress, Enjoy Grade 12

“Just live in the f***ing now”. This was my former camp director’s favourite saying that he would often preach to the staff team. Living in the now is something that not enough people nowadays do. In high school, everyone’s focus is on getting accepted to a great university. Once in university, everyone worries about landing the perfect summer internship. People’s focuses are sometimes so far into the future that they forget to take advantage of all the cool things going on in their life in the present.

In grade 12 you get to be the top dog and probably know all the ins and outs of your school. You get to pick the courses you want to take. You get to go to prom! You will make memories and friends that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Don’t rush through it- you’ll never experience anything like it again!

In the grand scheme of things, no matter what university you end up at, you’ll probably love it anyways. There’s really no need to stress! Every school has unique offerings and overwhelming school spirit. There will be people with similar interests as you wherever you go. Everyone will graduate with similar knowledge no matter where you go too; It isn’t like Newton’s 3rd Law is more correct at Queen’s than it is at Dalhousie. The truth is that the school you choose to go to really doesn’t matter as much as you would like to think. Now this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t still focus on getting into your #1 program, rather that you should make time to stop and smell the flowers once in a while, because those flowers won’t be there forever. Don’t stress, enjoy grade 12.

Niki