Assignment 24: Katie Chen

I came into junior year filled with fear and stress. I wasn't sure if I could handle 5 AP classes and the immense workload that came with it. But overall, junior year wasn't bad as everyone made it out to be. Sure, a substantial amount of tears were shed, but I think I turned out pretty okay. I'm proud of myself for maintaining a job throughout the majority of the year, while also keeping my GPA and test scores decently high.
As for failures, where do I start. I noticed I started becoming more and more introverted as the year went on, opting to stay at home and study rather than go out with friends. About halfway through the year, my social life tanked. My life started revolving around grades and test scores and impressing my parents that I slowly started to drift away from everyone. This wasn't good for my mental health, as my daily routine consisted of school, work, home. So I guess the lesson I learned here was that balance matters. Of course, grades and school are still important, but so is hanging out with friends and relaxing every once in a while.
Stanford's the dream, so I guess my goals for senior year are to work harder and continue pushing myself (while also maintaining a healthy social life) to make that dream a reality.