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Dear rising freshies,

Congratulations! You will soon enter high school and it can be a lot of fun after you get used to it. High school will be a much bigger building than middle school, but, because of this, there are longer bell times.

Also, you will get lost on your first day of school if you do not go to an orientation at your school.

Lockers, depending on which high school you go to, can be big or small, but many students carry around their things in backpacks.

Lunch can be a huge mess in high school, particularly if you go to a large school, so either get to the line early enough to not have to wait behind a lot of people, or pack your lunch because many students do.

Also, feel free to join a club, try out for a sport or audition for a play. It will be a good experience for you, even if you don't make it. And, above all, don't forget to make good grades in school.

Have fun.

-- Caroline Cromwell, Patrick Henry High School

Dear rising seniors,

As your junior year is coming to a close, here is a little advice from some of us who are about to leave.

For those of you who plan on applying to college, start working on applications early. Use your summer vacation to visit potential schools and get organized for the upcoming year.

For a lot of you, there will be projects that will be due during the fall, which you will find to be the busiest and hardest time of high school. So, try to work on those during summer, also.

As your senior year moves along, don't forget that these are the last few months you might have with some of these people, so live it up, but try not to get into trouble. Be careful and do not let things like "senioritis" become an excuse. Trust us, grades are still important senior year.

Mostly, just have fun! Senior year should be something you remember fondly.

With love,

Class of 2009

-- Claiborne Fletcher, North Cross School

Dear soon-to-be-graduates,

Congratulations! The school year is almost over and soon you will be off to bigger things like college and full-time jobs.

Thank you for greatly affecting my life for the past nine months. On the first day of school, you knew how to direct us little freshmen to our classes without screaming about how stupid we may have seemed.

Your wisdom was usually great, your grades mostly better than mine and your choices for the future seemed supreme. And even though everyone may not miss your craziness, they will always remember your smiles.

Please try to make the right decisions in your future endeavors, and don't completely forget about those of us who are still in high school.

Have fun with the rest of your lives.

-- Caroline Cromwell, Patrick Henry High School