7 Things My Sophomore Year Taught Me

As I’m writing this, my sophomore year of high school is coming to a close. I don’t know how, because it still feels like I walked into the high school for the first time as a freshman just yesterday. Already, I am halfway through my high school experience!

Somehow, I made it through another nine months of studying, learning, and doing my best, and now it’s finally summer! To celebrate the beginning of a new season (both literally and figuratively), I figured I would share with you guys seven different things that my sophomore year has taught me, whether it was in school, at church, or at any other part of this last year. Some of these things I have really grown in, and other things I am still working on today. I hope you guys find this to be encouraging, because it has helped me grow into who I am today.

1 - Not everybody wants to be your friend, and that’s okay

This is something that most people find out when they are in elementary school, like when a kid doesn’t play with them on a playground, but I’ve had to learn it in a much more complicated way.

In life, there are two kinds of friends. Some friends you have are cool to hang out with, and are funny, and even though you hang out with them sometimes, there’s not much growth between the two of you, and you are both okay with that. Other friends are like your close friends, your best friends. Even if you don’t see each other a lot, your friendship still exists from both sides. You pray for each other, cheer each other on, and you guys help each other grow into the best people you guys can be. I’ve learned that even though some people don’t want to be friends at all, some people only want to exist in a small part of your life, no matter how much you want to get to know them more.

This is really hard to deal with, because the amount of love and effort you put into this person never seems to be reciprocated. Sometimes, when different people are put into your life, it can be for only a short season, and we have to learn to be okay with that. I also learned from this how to find people that want to be more than casual friends, and who really care about all of me. No matter how those people see you, as a best friend, an acquaintance, or something else, you still have to love them, because you never know what they are going through and if they need a friend, so never give up on unconditionally loving these people.

2 - Hard work pays off

This one seems pretty obvious. I mean, if you work hard for something, doesn’t it make it a lot more likely that you’ll succeed in that thing? Even though it seems pretty simple, I had to learn to fight for things that I wanted to do well in. My classes this year were a lot harder than in the past, especially AP U.S. History (APUSH people will understand), and if I wanted to succeed and get good grades, I had to learn how to take good notes, pay attention in class, and study effectively and earlier than before. I spent countless hours doing these things, but now that the year is over, I can look at my report cards and smile at how my hard work really paid off.

Another thing I had to work hard at is taking care of my body. Now, I am nowhere close to being perfect, but I’ve made steps, and started pushing myself even harder. I’ve been creating some better workout routines, and getting to bed at a pretty good time (some nights). I hope to work on this more in the summer, but for now, I think I have been improving quite a bit.

Whether it is school, relationships with people, or taking care of yourself, the best way to improve is to work hard. Not only does it help you become the best version of yourself, but others will see how hard you work. It has become a gateway for me to share my faith with others. Colossians 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Whether you have a chemistry project, are playing a sport for your school, or trying something new, if you do your very best and work hard, you are glorifying God with your gifts and talents that he has given you.

3 - It doesn’t matter what other people think about you

I bet you’ve never heard this one before! This one is also seemingly obvious, but it’s actually really serious. A lot of people in this world are really concerned about how other people see them, and that is really a dangerous thing. It doesn’t matter whether it is in a physical sense or not, you should never spend all your time worrying about what you look like in the eyes of others. Some people wear “trendy” clothes, others start wearing a face full of makeup, and others create a new personality for themselves to try to be appealing to other people. None of these things are inherently bad, but I’ve learned that all it does is make you feel less and less like yourself, and a lot of the time, the person you are trying to impress usually never notices.

The Bible says that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Even if you don’t look like other people, we were all made in the image of the perfect God, and if he spent nine months making you in your mother’s womb, why waste a second changing that? God put every little detail into you for a specific purpose, so that he can be glorified. All those years you’ve spent trying to look like or act like someone else is like undoing the work of the One who created you!

4 - God understands you!

This one is something that helped me through a really rough season this winter, and it is what kept me going when I felt like I couldn’t go any further. About six months ago, I stumbled upon this verse in a time of desperation, and it is still my all-time favorite Bible verse. It is Psalm 56:8, and it says “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”. The reason I love this verse so much is because it showed me that God really does understand what I am going through. He sees the nights where I am struggling to focus on him, where I feel hopeless, and when loneliness takes over. It is the most comforting thing ever to know that the one who made the world is always looking after you. It makes me feel special and known.

In addition, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, also understands everything that we’ve ever been through. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). When Jesus was living here on Earth, he was tempted in many ways, whether by Satan or by the world. All the things that we are tempted by today, were also presented to Jesus! The only difference between us and Jesus in this circumstance is that Jesus never gave into the temptation, and therefore did not sin. However, Jesus still understands what it feels like to be tempted, so whenever you find yourself in the midst of spiritual warfare, just remember that you are never, ever alone. This has become very important to me in the last year.

5 - Reflection is important, and it changes your mindset

For me, reflection comes in many different ways. I find that I can reflect on my day, or my feelings, through prayer, journaling, and practicing being grateful. When I take time out of my day to reflect on these things, I often find that I can create a better mindset about how my day went, people involved in my day, or different situations I recently encountered.

In November, I started a great habit of journaling. I carry my journal with me a lot of the time, and I write a bunch of things in it. Sometimes I talk about my day, write prayers to God that I can be continually praying over, letters to people (that I will never give them), song lyrics that I connect to, and most recently, inspiration for Authentic Faith and how I can encourage others. It has given me a great outlet to talk about whatever I need to, and I love reading it over months, and even years, in the future, to see how much I’ve grown and to be encouraged by what God has brought me through.

I also started a gratitude journal, sometime around January. Every day, I write ten things that I am grateful for that day. It is often a mix of people, verses, ideas, things I did that day, and even little things like food that made me happy. I love to do this, because there are a lot of big and little things that really bring me joy, and I like to challenge myself by always writing different things each day.

Even if you guys are not really into journaling like I am, I encourage you to buy at least a small journal and write something every day. I find it a much healthier way to express my emotions than ranting to other people, which often leads to destruction. Proverbs 29:11 (one of my favorites) says this: “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back”. When you “vent” to people, you can often cause lots of chaos and drama, even if you don’t mean to. Be careful about what you say, and I recommend bringing all of your thoughts and emotions to God first, and let him be the judge.

6 - Sometimes, you have to reach out first

For the majority of my life, I was always under the assumption that other people would always be reaching out to me, whether it was to ask how I was doing, choosing a day to hang out, or to ask how they could pray for me. After wasting so much of my time waiting for other people to be intentional about our friendships, I realized that even though some people in my life do that for me, I cannot rely on every single person to reach out. This is when I realized that if I want to grow deeper in my relationships with people, I have to constantly put myself out there and reach out first.

Now, this does not mean that people will always reciprocate that. Unfortunately, there are many times in my life where I kept reaching out to them, but they never even bothered to send a text back. I’m not going to lie, it hurt me a lot. However, after a while, I found the people that were willing to reciprocate the effort I put into the friendship, and those friendships are still growing!

So, instead of always sitting around, waiting for other people to call you up, gather up the courage and reach out to someone else! It doesn’t have to be a close friend, because I’ve learned that the people you’ve only met once or twice can end up to be amazing people! I know that there are people that want nothing more than to get to know you better, and to be a part of your life, and reaching out first is a great way to do that.

7 - Have fun!

Honestly, this one might be the biggest thing that I have learned this sophomore year. I know all of these sounded kind of obvious, but truly learning these things is what has made me who I am right now, as I am typing these words.

I remember, when I was in middle school (it feels like forever, but it was only a few years ago), I loved to blend into the crowd. For me, there were no bright colors on my clothes, no trying new things, and definitely not dancing in front of people I hardly knew. In my 12-year-old mind, that was insane!

This year, especially in the last few months, I learned how much fun it is to have fun! Now, I love to hype my teammates up on the volleyball court, have my own dance party in the midst of a bunch of people, and even start a blog! This blog has been a kind of milestone in my life, because it seems to me to be a symbol of putting myself out there, opening up my heart to the world in order to make a difference.

Anyways, I have learned a few ways that I absolutely love to have fun and be myself. I have elaborate concerts in my shower all the time, and I love to dance in the rain. I know some of you might think that is weird, but these things make me feel like myself, and I love to do that! Whatever it is that you like to do, try to find things, even little things, to have fun. After all, I’m still a teenager in high school: having fun is pretty much my job!

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this, and it is my hope that you carry some of these things with you into the summer, where God can mold you and shape you into the person that he wants you to become. I love you guys!