Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year. No matter if it is your first or last year as a part of Black Knight Nation, we all are starting a new year with new challenges. Each year will be an adjustment, you will have better and worse years, but you will always be a part of this community and have Black Knight Nation to lean back on.

Freshman

Welcome to Stamford High. You finally have gotten outside of the awkward middle school stage and are now in high school. High school is a big deal, as many people will tell you over your next four years here. It counts, big time. This year is the foundation for high school, so here’s some advice. So many people are going to tell you your grades are so important, which they are, but I am here to tell you that they aren’t so important to a certain extent. Yes, your grade point average (GPA) matters and doing well matters, but one bad test won’t decide your future (and as a freshman, I thought it did). Beside academics, enjoy your time in high school. Go to football games, hang out with your friends, join the band– do whatever makes you happy. So many people will say it and I thought it wasn’t true until I got to this point, but these years go by so fast. Through these years you will make friends, lose friends, fail, mess up, have fun, cry, and succeed. This is your high school experience and you control it, never forget that. It is okay to get lost, trust me, everyone did. It will take a week or two to learn everything, but once you do, you will know the school like the back of your hand. 

Oh, and don’t forget to buy passes to the 10th floor pool. Despite what some people may say, it is real.

Sophomores

Welcome back, you aren’t at the bottom of the pyramid this year. The biggest piece of advice I have to say for sophomore year is to enjoy it. Use this year as a GPA booster, many people say that it is the easiest year academically. Work hard this year, trust me, it will pay off in the long run.

Enjoy this year through its many aspects. Enjoy that you are not freshmen anymore. Enjoy that you don’t have to stand at the back of the fan sections at games. Enjoy that this year is not the hardest year of high school. Enjoy the last year of people not asking you, “So where do you want to go to college?” 

Sophomore year is good, but it is what you make of it. Have fun and work hard.

Juniors

It’s not worth sugar-coating it… junior year is awful. It is stressful, it is hard, and it is tiring– but it also is fun at times. You are officially an upper-classman, which is the best. You are climbing towards the top. 

School this year is going to be hard no matter what classes you are taking. There are going to be sleepless nights because you waited until the last night to annotate a book– trust me, we all did it. Work hard, but put your mental health first. Sometimes, it’s worth it to go to that sports game instead of studying a little extra for a test. A test is only one grade, don’t let it define you. Enjoy the little things this year and stay involved in the community. 

Work hard, it will all be worth it at the end of the year. 

Seniors

I can’t necessarily give advice for all the seniors because I am in the same place as all of you. We are all at the beginning of our senior year, and the beginning of the end. We are the leaders of the school. We define how good or bad our senior year will be. This is our last chance to enjoy our childhood and be irresponsible– to an extent. Get good grades this year, enjoy your extracurriculars, and most importantly have fun. Don’t have any regrets leaving high school. 

This is 2020… this is our year. 

If you don’t know what you are reading right now and what this website is, this is the Stamford Round Table, the official newspaper for Stamford High School. We cover events at the school and write about everything about Stamford High and more. Please feel free to request coverage for an event and express your feedback. We are excited to bring you all your news this year.