Being a teen isn’t easy. Balancing school, friends, a social life, and maintaining a good relationship with your family can get hectic. Trust me, I know. High school can be one of the most dramatic chapters of someone’s life. It’s really tough balancing all of your priorities. You gain more responsibilities and everything seems to bog you down all at once.

Through all of the chaos, it may be hard to figure out what’s most important, and you may get confused about what your priorities should be. I remember when I first started high school; I didn’t care too much about my grades. I kept thinking, I have 4 years to make my GPA better. My parents and older sister kept advising me that it wasn’t so easy to “fix” my GPA once I slacked. I ignored their advice because I thought I knew better. Not only that, I was too busy worrying about “being cool”. Yeah, that was only until I realized I wouldn’t be so cool when all of my friends would be going to college and I wouldn’t if I kept on slacking.

It was really hard for me to figure out how to be popular and start focusing on my grades. I knew that getting good grades mattered and I kept saying that I was “trying”, but it wasn’t good enough. Report card after report card, I was still getting bad grades. Finally, at the end of my freshman year, I convinced myself that getting honor roll was impossible. My sophomore year was worse than my freshman year. It was so bad that I was beginning to feel ashamed. Up until then, I was always “the smart girl” – at home and at my old school as well. Deep down, I knew I could do better; I just had my priorities mixed up and cared more about being a social butterfly.

I had an epiphany this past summer. I went to visit a few colleges in Georgia with my dad and my sisters. At every school visit, I was reminded of the admssion requirements, and all of them had a minimum GPA requirement. I got scared. It finally hit me. At last I understood that if I wanted a better future for myself I had to buckle down and hit the books.

In September (the beginning of my junior year), I dedicated myself to school, and surprisingly I still have a social life. What’s even more surprising is that I’m getting A’s and B’s in my classes and I’m very excited about applying to colleges in the fall. I know this may sound cliché, but EDUCATION SHOULD BE YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY. If that means you have to put your social life on hold, then you should do it. There’s no better feeling than being successful. Believe it or not, what you do in high school will determine your future. I know it’s difficult to understand and it may seem hard, but trust me, it’s so worth it. Although my GPA is getting better, it will never be what it should or could have been if I had applied myself during the first two years of high school. However, I don’t regret not doing better because this entire experience has given me a lesson that will help me for the rest of my life. I always tell myself that just trying isn’t good enough. Making things happen is what life is all about.

-Kerrin