Navigating the High School Journey:
The Benefits of Being Prepared

Hitting high school is a huge milestone in a young person’s life! It brings exciting new experiences, challenges, worries, and growth opportunities. While leaving elementary and middle school behind can be an exciting transition, it can also come with some anxiety and apprehension about the great unknowns of high school life. Navigating more independence and a heavier course load can be a seriously daunting task if you don’t feel prepared. With a plan, a supportive network, and the right skills in place, a positive entry into high school can set the foundation for a fulfilling academic career – as well as lifelong connections, passions, and friendships.

Here are our top tips for starting high school strong this September:

1. Set Up Your Social Safety Net

Adolescence is all about developing a greater awareness of self – finding out who you are outside of your family of origin – and the high school environment is a significant factor in fostering that growth. As ‘independent dependents’, teens tend to move away from family and focus more on relationships outside the home. Doing what you can to build and maintain positive relationships with peers, teachers, and other adults is the biggest safety net you can set up, both now and in the future. When we feel safe with those around us, we’re free to explore our passions and interests and securely thrive in school – but you have to be deliberate about investing in friendships and relationships with teachers and staff – it takes time, intention, and effort to build your network. Who you choose to hang out with and invest in is key here!  Exploring what is important to you as a human and thinking about who you want to be in the world can help you decide who you want to align with. That, combined with the confidence to set healthy boundaries and the know-how to manage conflict or advocate assertively is the key to building healthy, long-lasting relationships that give your high school years meaning and richness.

2. Find Your Zen

High school comes with a unique set of pressures, both socially and academically. Plus, just existing as a teenager means you will manage some pretty wide mood and energy swings as your body and brain work through the transition into adulthood. If you’ve never been taught the skills you need to regulate your emotions and cope through the tough moments (without causing new, bigger problems), this can lead to overwhelming feelings of stress, anger, and frustration. If this cycle isn’t broken, it can even lead to anxiety or depression. The good news is, there are lots of things you can do to build your confidence and resilience that can help with both preventing and managing through these big emotions.

It starts with the basics: get enough sleep, eat enough/balanced food, unhook yourself from your phone/socials for deliberate periods of time every day, and move your body regularly – exercise is a HUGE stress reliever. Once the basics are covered, you’ll want to find something you love that you can build some mastery in – something you’re passionate about and enjoy – and make time for that in your weekly routine.  Feeling low?  Try doing something kind for someone else who is struggling – this can help you put your own problems into perspective and reframe how you think and feel about your situation – what size is this problem?  What size should your reaction be? Oh, and remember that social safety net you’ve been setting up from tip #1?  Resilience and self-regulation are much easier to achieve when you can talk things through with a friend.

Being prepared to manage big emotions helps you to perform better in all areas of life. If you invest in building a stable foundation for your body and mind, you can be a stronger friend, teammate, student, and collaborator. With a greater resilience to strong emotions, teens can approach new situations, people, and experiences with enough confidence and optimism to offset the natural anxieties and fears that come with the package.

2. Put In The Work.  No … really.

Your high school performance can set the trajectory for your next steps in life. This is an age when you are thinking more about your future, figuring out what you are good at, and starting to plan for possible careers that might suit you. When you find a way to succeed in high school, you open the door for more post-secondary opportunities and have greater control over the job and lifestyle you’ll have in the future.

Success looks different for everyone, but the one thing it ALWAYS looks like is showing up and doing the work.  Your hard work won’t always get you the same results as the student beside you. It’s absolutely true that not everything you learn or are asked to do by teachers will be relevant or make sense to you.  The lack of connection from the curriculum to real life may frustrate and annoy you.

Do the work anyway.  

The biggest skill you’ll learn in high school is how to process what’s being asked of you (even when it’s non-preferred or feels arbitrary), figure out your success criteria for the task, and to deliver results that the rubric has asked for to the best of your ability – on time whenever possible. No matter what you end up doing in life, being able to process information accurately and produce targeted results is a skill you’re going to need!  And unfortunately, the only way through hard, boring, or non-preferred work, is through.  Accept this Life Truth as quickly and completely as you can, and then find a way to make it the most pleasant and least distressing it can be (eg, have your favourite music on, or prepare a preferred snack or cozy environment for the task, and plan to reward yourself with something you love to do after you’re done).

To perform well, you need solid work habits (set aside the time and make the space!), processes to plan your work and get organized (such as digital calendars & reminders), and skills to avoid or manage overwhelm (including swallowing your pride and asking for help when you feel stuck). At some point, you might fall behind for one reason or another.  Rarely is this fatal.  If you miss a deadline, communicate with your teacher clearly and ask respectfully for a chance to submit the work anyway.  Believe it or not, most teachers chose this career because they want to see kids succeed and they care about their students – if you make the effort, they’ll usually match it.

Transitioning into high school is a significant moment in life and feeling prepared can make all the difference. Taking some time to make a solid plan and dedicate some thought to your journey will pay off big time in terms of the kind of experience you have during your high school years.

Need Support?

If you have a teen entering high school, you may be interested in our High School PrepZone workshop. In this four-hour workshop coming up on Monday August 19, our experienced NowWhat coaches offer skills and strategies to help students build healthy relationships, organize their time to never miss a deadline, seek help and advocate for what they need, and find a balance between school, extracurricular activities, and self-care.

We also offer 1:1 Executive Function coaching to help develop those external strategies that help students navigate workload and timelines.

If you’re heading to high school this year or parenting someone who is, good luck – and remember, ‘“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits

For more information email info@nowwhatsupports.ca or call 289-678-0581.