Dear underclassmen of Archbishop John Carroll High School,

I’m leaving this school after four long years but I thought there were a few things you should know specifically about how you should act in the years to follow. First off, juniors, you’re the big dogs now, but that just comes with an extra amount of stress and responsibility. The first piece of advice I want to give you — I know this doesn’t apply to all of you but — stop waiting until  the last minute to give in your assignments. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into my third period and hear the kids in your class talk about how they have a thousand things to get done within a single class period. However, I see these same kids do nothing preemptively. Instead of waiting to do all of your assignments until the next day, do them during your free periods or skip a practice or 2 to get them done. You’re not gonna get kicked out of your teams or clubs because you took a few days off to do school work. Also, if a teacher is giving you time to do an assignment in class, work on the assignment. Again, this doesn’t apply to all of you, but I’ve seen a lot of you get projects in class and instead of using the class time you’re given to get them done, all you guys do is talk and then try and finish everything  in a couple days before the project’s due. That was pretty much everything I wanted to tell you, but I’ll give you one more piece of advice, and that is to start caring more about the school. You guys are at the top now and hold the most bargaining power with the teachers and faculty, so if there’s some things that should be changed, go out of your way to change it.

Sophomores, my only advice to you is to simply grow up, and I don’t mean that to be rude, nor am I directing it to all of you, but some of you need this advice. For example, stop randomly screaming in the hallways. Not only is it both annoying and distracting to the people in the classrooms near you, it is also just a good way to get in trouble. I know it’s probably not just the sophomores doing this, but you’re the ones who I’ve seen doing it recently. Also, stop blocking the hallways. I don’t know or care if you were the ones who started it, but stop. Once again, it’s annoying and it’s just going to get you in trouble, if not hurt, because some people aren’t patient enough to sit there and wait for the late bell to ring. I know it’s not all of you but for those of you in the sophomore class who do this, you need to remember you’re going to be juniors and next year is going be one of the hardest years for you as well as a very important year for deciding your lives after high school, so at least respect the people in the school who actually care about those things. 

Lastly, freshmen, my advice to you is the same as the sophomores, except I mean it a lot more when it comes to your class. The reason for this is because from what I’ve seen this year, a few of you still think you are in middle school, which is a problem, especially since everything that happens in the rest of your high school life is being watched by colleges. For those of you who still think you’re in the 8th grade, guess what? You’re not. You’re in high school, so stop acting like you own the school. The people who I’m talking about know who you are. Even though I get that you missed an entire year of school and didn’t have time to fully mature before coming here, I still have to let you know that you can’t go into sophomore year acting like you’re still a freshman because, believe me when I tell you, that is not going to go well. Also even though not everybody acts like it, the entire school is supposed to be one big community, so stop trying to pick fights with people, and, again, you know who you are.

Sincerely, Matthew Fair