One of the hardest things about high school is that we’re all doing it for the first and only time. It’s not something you can practice or prepare for: you just have to do it and learn from it as you go. Unfortunately, that means most of us won’t make the most out of the majority of our time in high school. I’ve had the last three years to learn how to navigate the high school and I feel like I’m just starting to learn how to make the most of my experience. So I thought, for the first issue of this year, I’d share some of what I’ve learned over the last three years, in the hopes that someone younger than me will find it helpful. Here’s what I came up with:

Make school fun. Having fun is a choice. You can go into any situation planning on having fun, and you will have fun. You can show up to class expecting it to be boring, and I can almost guarantee that it will be boring. Fun isn’t something you can just wait around for. It’s something you have to create. It is an active experience, a mindset that you can take into any day, any class, any experience, which brings me to my second point.

Don’t let other people’s judgment control your actions. If you think it’s fun to wear a onesie to school, please wear a onesie to school. I promise no one cares, but it will make a world of difference for you. If you love running but you’re not very fast, join the track team anyway! Audition for the school play, even if you’re worried people will laugh. If they laugh at you, they’re jerks, and you don’t need their approval anyway. They’re probably insecure in themselves. Twenty years from now, even two years from now, you probably won’t remember if people judged you or not, but you will remember the fun things you chose to do. Some of my best memories from the last three years were the days I wore costumes to school or danced in the quad during rainstorms.

Just do things. It’s never going to feel like the right time to do anything. You’re always going to have homework, projects and reading. You’re always going to be busy. If you don’t make time for things you want to do, you’re never going to do them. I hear so many people talk about bands they want to start and projects they want to take on after graduation. I’m not convinced they’ll be any less busy after they graduate. Stop kicking the can down the road. Pick it up, and turn it into something beautiful! The fact that you’re young or a student doesn’t make you any less capable than anyone else. It just means you’re less experienced. There’s only one way to gain experience.

You create the culture you want. I just rolled my eyes writing that, but I truly do subscribe to that mantra. The high school is not some authoritarian regime, nor is its social structure. In fact, social life at the high school is completely malleable and fully composed of the people in it. You have the power to affect the school community: if you walk around with a negative attitude, so will the people around you. If you go into every day ready and excited to have fun, meaningful experiences, it will rub off on others. Call other people out on their bologna and push them to do new, exciting things with you.

Don’t limit yourself to one group of friends. Social dynamics are fluid. You don’t have to eat lunch with the same people every day or talk with the same people in each class. Making more friends is actually really fun. Just say hi to people in the halls. Have conversations. Most people are a lot cooler than you think.

Make friends with teachers and staff. Don’t have transactional relationships. Those aren’t fun for anyone. Most teachers are really nice, passionate and cool people. So are the security guards, the custodians and the cafeteria staff. Get to know them! The more human interaction you have, the more enjoyable your time at school will be.

Take lots of cool classes. You only have four years at the high school. Free blocks are nice, but you have your entire life to spend your free time. Learn about new things while you can. Take animation, graphic design, TV production, maybe even journalism. I’ve taken electives I thought I might enjoy for a semester that ended up turning into some of my biggest passions and hobbies.

Be present. Don’t use your phone in the hall. Don’t scroll through Instagram reels while you’re waiting for class to start. You can do that anywhere at any time. It’s far less often that you’ll get to see your classmates and your teachers. Talk with them. Appreciate them. See them. Be with them. Spending time on your phone around others is a great way to miss out on taking full advantage of your limited time in high school.

You only have one high school experience. And more broadly, you only have one life. Make it your own, and make it the best experience you can.