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JW: Oh, I would tell my freshman year self to not wait so long before being more social and outgoing. That’s kinda bad grammar. How do I even say that better? Don’t wait until senior year to be more social.

JW: My name is John Winton.

SL: My name is Sylvia Li.

NT: My name is Neo Tyagi. 

SS: My name is Shruti Sharma.

JW: I’m in 12th grade.

SL: I’m a senior.

NT: I am a senior. 

SS: I’m a senior. 

JW: My entire Monta Vista experience — I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. 

SL: Probably like a seven out of 10.

NT: Probably around a seven.

SS: A 7.5 out of 10.

JW: I had, I mean I have very good friends since middle school, but meeting new people and making new friends is always a very cool experience, and you never have to give up your old friends. So I guess there’s no point in not trying to make new friends. 

NT: I would tell myself to be more inclined to visiting clubs and participating a lot more because I think it builds a kind of family. Right? And it’s good to be connected, because then you have more connections to talk with people, get advice, meet seniors, juniors, people above you and you’ll get more advice and such.

SS: My sophomore year, I had senior friends and they told me basically what I would have told myself. They were like, “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be OK,” And I wish that I had taken that into more consideration. 

SS: I would tell my freshman year self to not stress about each individual tiny assignment and worry about the tiny things, like getting everything done and really just focusing on making connections with the people that I like spending time with, and making key memories, because I feel like I only really started doing that this year. And I think that I would have enjoyed my other years more if I did that.

SL: I would probably tell myself that it’s OK iIf not everything goes according to plan. Even if you have this super strict set out idea of what high school is going to be like down to every class you take and everything you’re doing, things are bound to change, and it’s OK if your original plans have to change or you’re not following them exactly. 

SL: One of the things that made my Monta Vista experience as good as it was, was the people I met and the experiences I had with them, so I’d really like to carry some of those. Obviously, the people I have already met, I’ll continue to know them in college, but I’ll also take that experience of making new friends, meeting new people and learning about them and having new experiences with them and bring those skills into college so I can meet a wide range of people and be able to have a similarly fun time in college.

NT: Definitely gonna take a confidence level because you can’t do well if you don’t got confidence, so you got to have some kind of boost there.

SS: I’m definitely going to put myself out there more, be more confident and try to make as many friends and connections as possible and just try to enjoy each individual day more. 

JW: High school and college friends are people that you will most likely keep in touch with for your whole life, so I guess be more social and outgoing.

SL: Everything’s gonna be alright in the end, which is kind of basic, but you can kind of just go with the flow, accept the changes that happen and be able to adapt away from your original plans quickly. And then if you keep doing that everything will eventually work out and you’ll graduate.