By Cassie Honeycutt, Features Editor

Picture this: Your schedule is three AP classes, two COA classes and two electives. Your day is jam-packed and you’re doing the most to stand out against your classmates. 

Sike. You did not get the ideal junior year schedule. 

That perfect junior schedule is the exact opposite of what I feel like I have. Five COA classes and then the rest of my day filled with electives. I like my schedule, but I’m not the one who is deciding my fate when it comes to getting into college. 

I feel like junior year is the year to show colleges your full potential, like jamming your schedule with AP classes, getting killer grades and ending the year with the best GPA possible. 

But, the track I am on right now is only checking two of those boxes, and I am not content with that. 

The reality is that most juniors completed their junior year as sophomores. My chemistry class was mostly sophomores and so was my math three class. While that’s true, the classes are actually intended for juniors.

Last year when I was registering for junior year I felt overwhelmed. I had no classes to take because I had jumped on the chance to take high school classes in middle school. I now had the choice of finishing high school, or filling up my schedule with COA classes and electives to keep me as a high school student. 

I chose the option of taking COA classes, which a lot of people in my position took advantage of. In your head it may sound great, but on paper, it didn’t look so pretty. 

As I think about colleges looking at my junior year transcript, all I think about is the admissions office laughing. Obviously, I don’t know what colleges are looking for, but I can’t imagine they’re looking for juniors who have free periods or easy classes. 

I don’t want all my hard work to go down the drain because I started my high school education a year earlier. If I had known that I would run out of classes to take for the most important year of high school, I would have passed up the offer. 

At the same time, I am thankful for the opportunity to take highschool classes because it gives me the chance to take COA classes, and COA classes give me the chance to receive dual credit, and challenge myself a bit more. 

There are pros and cons to junior year — but it all depends what you make of those to determine the kind of year you are going to have. 

I need to work on making the best of junior year. Even though I feel like a sloth, all I can do is put my effort into my classes and create the best outcome possible. No matter how lazy I feel junior year, I am going to make the best of it. 

Junior news editor Cassie Honeycutt can be reached at 21honeycuttca35@daretolearn.org