Opportunities tend to come and go throughout your lifetime: even late into adulthood, you still find yourself weighing the pros and cons of taking certain advantages. Even though they exist in all stages of life, one could easily argue that high school is the most important time to be taking those opportunities, both social and academic, for the student’s guaranteed success in the adult world. However, there is an overarching issue; how much can you fit into four years? 

Ailani Mora, a senior at Grant Community High School, is one of the many students who simply ran out of time. She originally was planning on going into creative directing due to a class she had taken as a freshman and sophomore, however, right before junior year, she suddenly decided she wanted to go into psychology. Because of the late switch-up, she didn’t take the classes she needed in order to be as successful as she could’ve been. In junction, she also feels like she wasn’t as involved, missing out on many clubs and activities she would’ve been interested in. The majority of her friends had been preparing for their futures since freshman year, and she noticed that a few of her peers experienced the same thing she did; simply running out of time to explore. She emphasized that the shorter time you have to prepare, the less opportunities for success you have. 

“I think the opportunities were always there, but we weren’t properly informed of them,” said Mora. “There’s still opportunities, but it’s a bit more difficult. I’m at a point where I don’t exactly know what I need to do to make my school career look impressive now.” 

Mora is often stressed by this, feeling that if she were able to properly explore all of her options in full, she’d be able to properly take advantage of her high school career. However, looking back, she is satisfied with the direction she’s in now, despite the cons; she enjoyed her classes immensely and felt a sense of community. Even if they weren’t what she needed, Mora will always be thankful to her freshman and sophomore year.

When comparing the opportunities a student has as a freshman versus a senior, there’s a large gap between the two; freshmen have a larger range available to them, and a lot more time to figure out what they want to do after school. 

However, both Mora and freshman Mason Young agree on one thing: students aren’t properly informed. 

Young states, “You have to actively search for a lot of this information. I feel like that’s really limiting people who just have no idea that information exists.” he reflected. 

Young felt that most won’t take the first step into researching, commenting on how he didn’t even know when the Homecoming dance or when the last football game was. Because the students simply don’t know what’s there, they often miss out on clubs, sports, and other activities that would give them a space to collaborate with their peers. Similarly, none of the larger events are very advertised, and students may miss out on important social events, like club socials and college visits.

Young also agrees with Mora’s situation, commenting on how he regrets taking the classes he did, now that he can see what the other classes are: “Right now, I’ve got four electives I’m taking, and three of them are in tech or engineering. I’m already worried that I’m committing too much if I might not even like it.” 

Young and Mora feel that there is a significant lack of communication between staff and students. However, despite this, they both feel that, as they aged, they had so many more opportunities open up. 

“I really do feel like I have more options,” Young reflects.

He feels like there are so many more classes than middle school, and that the schedules are a lot more personalized. Mora also mentions this, and she believes that as a senior ages out of high school, there are thousands of opportunities for success, you just need to know where to find them. 

All in all, opportunities aren’t communicated well with the younger students, ending in most missing out or choosing the wrong classes. In a different lens, for the seniors and juniors, it’s already too late to take certain opportunities that were available when they were younger. Even then, both Young and Mora are confident that the future generations can be more successful with better communication and coaching, and that the younger generation’s mistakes give them the opportunity to grow.