Proposal

If you were to ask me if I enjoyed high school as a freshman, sophomore, or currently as a junior, I would give you a very frank no.  If you asked many of the other kids, you would probably get the same answer.  I often hear current college students or graduates say, "High school is your worst four years and college are your best four years."  Why?
High school is meant to prepare us for hard, grueling classes in college.  But it seems in the process,  they have lost the essence of education: actually learning something.
As an incoming freshmen, I was scared out of my mind at the sight of a big school with tall seniors and so much homework.  I didn't sign up for this!  And the worst part was sitting in class and not being able to understand what the teacher was teaching.  Taking all Honors classes was not easy and not being able to keep up on top of that was even more difficult.  As a junior, those problems have not magically been wished away overtime.  If anything, they have grown worse.  Now, I have to think not only about Honors classes but also AP classes, SATs, college, and my future.  I'm only 15 (almost 16)!  Oh, but it's not over yet.
I had always be social anxious around people and I had a difficult time trusting them.  And unfortunately, high school brought out a whole new level of anxiety.  I was let down by many people and wasn't emotionally mature enough to handle any of it.  Stupid, I know, but I'm not the only one (even if others don't want to admit it). Social interaction is during teenage years because kids are becoming more mature, physically and mentally. And frankly, we feel awkward almost all the time.  So trying to be accepted and secure with your own self is like climbing Mt. Everest, hard.
This is what the situation currently looks like, from the perspective of a high school student.  That doesn't mean we can't change it.
I believe that the first step to making high school a more comfortable environment for students is by making a smoother transition phase for freshmen.  In order to accomplish this, I want to create a one-semester course for incoming freshmen.  This class would be similar to that of a freshmen seminar in college.  Here, you could learn about the do's and don'ts of high school, learn useful skills on study habits and time management, how to accept who you are and present yourself in front someone or a group of people, be aware of the important things to focus on in high school such as CAPT, SAT, college, AP, and general expectations of classes as a whole.  The class would give you a thorough outline of what you need to know in order to survive and not go completely insane.  Having someone who graduated high school recently would be quite beneficially in making this course helpful to freshmen because they would be able to relate more with someone who just went through high school a few years ago than with someone who might have graduated in the 1970s or 1980s (large generation gap).
This can decrease the anxiety that students face from academics and social interactions, improve their grades, make them feel more comfortable in school and not have them regret getting out of bed, and create a more focused generation of kids.
We have to remember that these kids are going to be the next generation of change for our country, our world.  We have to make sure that they know that there is a future for them.  If they resent high school, they will never look beyond it and look forward to higher education and doing something for the world.