In a big high school like Prior Lake, it can be daunting to a freshman who’s never walked its floors. Introducing the Survival Guide on what classes to take and what you should do during your high school years.

As always, the most important piece of advice is to do well in school but not to focus on it entirely. “It’s really important to get good grades, but make sure you spend time with friends and doing fun stuff so that school doesn’t take over!” says Ellie Muelken, a senior at Prior Lake.

This is the key to surviving high school. In fact, there are many things you could do as a freshman including cheering on our teams, joining clubs, attending dances, and doing practically any sport.

If none of those sound like your thing, then you can always turn to academics. The top class? Mr. Wagner, the AP World Geography teacher. Senior Rachel Vander Weit and senior Muelken can attest to that.  AP World History is available to 10th graders, so that’s a class to look forward to in the future.

If you want a class for your freshman year though, Mr. Daggit, AP Human Geography, is another teacher to go for.

Learning how to just be yourself and not caring what others think is Vander Weit’s parting advice that many people can learn from.

Despite everything written above, if you are to get one piece of advice, it’s to be yourself and not to follow what everyone else if doing because it’s better to be happy and be original than to follow others while being unhappy.