As the final weeks of May approached for me, and as other seniors moved through the last few days of the final year, it started to feel too real.

Starting high school can be a stressful thing especially during freshman year. Learning how to balance school, sports, and social life can be a difficult thing when it’s something that isn’t normal until high school. Coming in as a freshman, I faced fear because I knew high school and starting a school sport would be harder.

However, when it comes to learning the perfect balance, it’s all based on determining what is important. School work should always be the thing to come first — even if you have the opportunity to go hangout with friends. This can even mean staying up a little extra late during nights just to finish some homework.

There are always going to be times where school has to come before seeing friends and other times where friends can come over schoolwork. It can become easier when it’s a Friday, knowing there is a weekend to finish.

There will be other times when the decision of being a little late comes into play.

During high school, the moments and experiences with friends are the most important to live to the fullest. It can, however, become harder when playing a sport because of the different commitments that are made when having to practice every day and even having games a couple days out of the week.

This can make it extremely difficult with not having extra time to see friends or even having that extra time to study for a test.

Some strategies that can help are doing some extra work during school when there is time, doing it before practice, or even on the way to a game on the bus. It can make it easy when it comes to finding that extra time.

During high school, it’s important to enjoy and cherish ever single moment like it’s the last. Our experiences here go by very fast. But still, every single moment from practice, games, and hangouts with friends will last forever.