Though it can be difficult to imagine your teachers as teenagers, they too were once in high school. While they have many fond memories of their high school years, they also all have some remorseful feelings. Here’s what five teachers had to say about their biggest high school regrets.
Lisa Otsuka
AP English Literature, ELD III, ELA III
Do you believe in regrets?
“I believe that you can have regrets, but, at the same time, I am more of the philosophy that really there are no mistakes. Every life experience teaches you something, as long as you’re willing to learn from their lessons.”
What is your biggest regret from high school?
“If I went back and did high school again, I would put myself out there a little bit more socially. I took myself pretty seriously back then. I think sometimes now students feel the same way because there’s such intense pressure to get into a good college and defer all friendship gratification. Friendships take time, and I didn’t prioritize that as much as I did my academic life.”
What advice would you give to students at M-A?
“I think it’s easy to have tunnel vision and perspective myopia and just see your GPA, your SAT scores, and your grades. My advice would be to step back and look around. You see the pressure that this area breeds. Look at the conditioning, get off the hamster wheel.”
Marcus Kevorkyan
AP World History and US History
What is your biggest regret from high school?
“I grew up in a small town, so by the time I got to high school, I’d been going to school with the same group of friends for a while. I knew other people, but in a lot of ways, I really stuck with my original friends. I wish I’d gotten to know the other people a little bit better.”
What advice would you give to students at M-A?
“I didn’t really think that you could form strong relationships with people quickly, but that idea changed for me in college. I think students should be cognizant of the fact that time is not the only factor in forming strong relationships.”
Adam Reitman
Algebra I and Integrated Math
Do you believe in regrets?
“I don’t have a solid yes or no, but I think that you have to learn from those regrets, and then let them go.”
What is your biggest regret from high school?
“I over-accelerated in math, and I took a precalculus class that I just didn’t have the foundational knowledge that would have readied me to be successful in that class. If I had done what my previous teacher had said and retook geometry, I probably would have gone further in math than I actually did.”
Erika Mungai
MCLV and English I Support
What was your biggest regret from high school?
“My biggest regret was not going out of my comfort zone. I think that I had this feeling that people had already decided the sports and hobbies that they were going to be good at, so I felt like I couldn’t try out for a school play or try a new sport that I wasn’t already good at.”
What advice would you give to students at M-A?
“I think M-A is really cool because it has so many different clubs, extracurriculars, sports, and elective classes. I would recommend trying something new and seeing how it goes. Also, learn to be okay with trying something and not being great at it, because those experiences actually end up making you a stronger person.”
Sapna Bhagwat
French
What was your biggest regret from high school?
“Not doing more extracurricular activities. I feel like I said no to a lot of things that I could have said yes to. For example, I was asked to be part of a hiking club, and I don’t know why, but I said no. I joined the club a few years later, but I feel like I missed out, even though there was no reason for me to say no.”
What advice would you give to students at M-A?
“Be open to experiences if you have the opportunity to experience something new. I feel that my high school experience was so different from yours that it doesn’t really compare. For example, we just didn’t have a lot of the stuff that you have today. Your high school life is so much richer and I’m glad that you have so many opportunities.”
