It’s easy as high schoolers to assume that we know best in every situation. But it is equally– if not more– easy to look back after this is all over and wish that we had done things differently or known more than we did. The only way for us to lessen this effect without the knowledge of hindsight is to talk to people that have already walked the same path we are walking. We trust our teachers to teach us valuable lessons that will help us through life in the future; but here are a few things that the staff at Mountain View High School wishes they would have known before the end of their high school journey.

MRS. HOPKINS
“I wish I would’ve had the financial literacy class! I am still learning how to manage my money. I never learned how to budget or invest– that’s something you will use every day.”

MRS. FREYTAG
“I wish I would’ve taken my high school education more seriously. I did okay in my classes, but I kind of just slid through. I wish I would have put more effort in because that would have prepared me for college and my career path– I just didn’t take it seriously enough.”

MRS. SUZUKI (Featuring Taylor Swift)
“But in your life, you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team. But I didn’t know it at fifteen.”

MRS. LAWYER
“A lot of high school drama ends up not really meaning anything in the end. As much as you think that high school is the world right now, high school will be nothing in the future. So don’t worry about the things that happen in high school so much. I wish I would have had a financial literacy class.”

MR. WALSH
“I think part of it is realizing that you don’t know everything– there are things that we think we know, but we don’t. So be in the right place at the right time.”

MR. TAYLOR
“I wish I had known that being kind is way more important than being cool.”

MRS. B
“Your growth isn’t measured by how you stack up against others, but by how you challenge yourself.”

MR. ERICKSEN
“Everything that I know now.”

MR. NAIR
“Something I knew but wish I’d done is I wish I would’ve gotten involved in clubs and extracurricular activities. You get to meet people and get lots of cool experiences, and I wish I would’ve done more of that.”

MRS. VANDENBOS
“What seems really important in high school in the long run is not.”

MRS. MILLER
“Life gets better after high school– the rest of your life is so much better after high school.”

We as high schoolers often trick ourselves into thinking that we know too much to be able to learn from others– but these teachers and staff show us that, despite how much we think we know, there is always more to learn!