I just want to address the fact that I do not work for nor am I actually qualified to film anything for NTV. I have been confused so many times for being a part of NTV whenever I am out doing photo assignments for The Howler. Despite being confused for either NTV or yearbook, I enjoyed my time on the Howler. I started as a humble staff writer, and then I was suddenly thrusted into the position of photo editor the next year. I had no prior experience with taking photos, much less editing them. I found it to be an interesting opportunity to learn some new skills. And I did learn new things. I also learned a valuable lesson after being a photo editor for an entire school year:

Doing a bunch of things is really stupid.

Do not get me wrong. Participating in extracurriculars is good, but having a mentality of saying “yes” to all the opportunities that came my way led to less than ideal situations. I thought getting more involved would be good, and there are some benefits in doing that. I learned how to improve my drumming, developed my leadership abilities and became a jack-of-all-trades type of person. It just got to the point where I was in six music ensembles at the same time, photo editor for The Howler, club president, all while applying for colleges and manging a classload of APs.

I greatly value all the unique experiences and lessons I learned from it. But I did not value the countless nights of barely getting sleep to catch up on my homework. I replaced the time I could spend doing homework or relaxing with extracurricular activities that left me exhausted and burnt out. It got to the point where I would sleep on the floor because I was too exhausted to climb into my bed.

For any underclassman reading this, take my word for it and do not overload yourself. Slowing down and making time for yourself is more important than anything else you might do during high school. Everything goes by so fast as a senior, but slowing down helps me recognize all the good things that have happened to me: all of the unlikely friendships I’ve made, nights spent rushing to publish the paper while drinking a slightly unhealthy amount of caffeine and all the crazy shenanigans that I get The Howler staff into—that was what made high school memorable. Not the nights staying up cramming for some APUSH test or whatever AP assignment I had to do. Appreciate high school while you can because you never know when some random global catastrophe will take it away from you.