Students at West are choosing their classes without a thought of how they might be making choices that would affect their time, experiences, and futures.

   “It’s important to sign up for classes ahead of time because what will happen is sometimes a student won’t sign up for a class that they want to take. Some instances, later when they go to sign up for that class, and it’s past the point where we have decided that we’re not gonna offer that class because not enough students wanted to take it,” assistant principal Andy Wares said.

   Wares has been working at West for 13 years and this is his first year being in charge of the master schedule. Although he worked alone alongside Charles Kolbusz, who previously was in charge of master scheduling before retiring last year.

   “In the matter of being scared of making mistakes I take a very responsible approach to my work,” Wares said. “I think if I’m gonna make a mistake it won’t be a big one because of all the work I do to make sure I’m doing it right, but I’m also not worried about making mistakes because I feel like that’s how someone learns best.” 

     Some students at West feel pressure in their classes to succeed and strive towards the challenges they must not ignore but eventually face.

   “I am scared about messing up, especially on tests and assignments. I think confidence and self-determination are what force you to do better and push yourself. If you don’t do great on something it’s better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all,” senior Caroline Griffiths’ said.

   Griffiths’ work ethic and determination have been key factors to her plans for her future life, and what she wants to do with it.

   “I plan to go to Northern Michigan College (NMC) because all of the Advanced Placement (AP) classes I have taken have been helping me work towards my college credit,” Griffiths’ said. “I want to go to NMC because of the cost, along with my college credits. It’s cheap and so I can get the easy stuff, like English and Math, out of the way.”

   With success being the big picture for students here at school, students strive to do their best, but only if they feel like they have chosen the right classes that think best suits them.

   “In the case of whether I feel like I’m making the right choices for classes, I would say no mainly because it’s a lot of hard work for me and I can barely keep up with it. My school work is definitely a challenge for me, but I like to strive towards my challenges,” freshman Shaylon Roslund said. 

   When having to focus on all of your work you have to do for school it can be very challenging to find time for your personal life and to make sure you’re satisfied.

   “Advice I would give to others would be to try and challenge yourself at first and if you decide you can’t handle it that’s when you can back out,” Roslund said. “If you don’t try to challenge yourself then you’ll never know if you can do it or not.”