Quick! Name the top five schools you are considering for college. Do you know? If you’re a student at FHN, odds are you probably don’t. According to the guidance office, a trend has been growing throughout the hallways of North, and no, they’re not talking about PDA. This trend has been noticed, not because of what students are doing, but because of what they’re not: taking an active role in preparing for life after high school.

As of press time only two students have completed the $1000 St. Peters Kiwanis scholarship, two students have turned in the FHN Athletic Booster Club scholarship and only two students have applied for the $1,000 American Legion scholarship. Two years ago, PTO offered four $500 scholarships to seniors at North. The requirement: An essay on your most influential teacher. Number of applicants: three. This year’s applicant number: one.

“That definitely made choosing easy,” Guidance counselor Tom Daugherty said. “I think [that’s] a waste, a lack of effort, a lack to follow through.”

While this is a problem, it is one easily fixed with the slightest individual effort. Every student at North you don’t go to guidance, there are has resources the school provides at still things you can do on your own. If you’re an athlete, start talking to their fingertips, all it takes is a walk to the guidance office. There, an entire coaches, create a profile online, get room full of counselors can tell you yourself noticed. You dream of being what classes you need to graduate, on a Division I team, but how are you suggest schools to look at based on going to get there if the coaches don’t know your name? If you’re a senior, your interests and get you contact information for those schools. And if actually apply for a scholarship; there’s hundreds of them. You write essays every week in school for a grade, why can’t you write one for a $1,000? If you’re an underclassman, at least start thinking about what you’ll do after you graduate, take the ACT your sophomore year. It can’t hurt.

Everyday, hundreds of kids at our school go home and have hours of free time to themselves. If they were to spend as little as 15 minutes a day doing something for their future, looking online at schools, contacting coaches or looking for scholarships, who knows how big of a difference that will make.

“I know that sometimes [scholarships] are a lot of work,” Administrative assistant Candi Kidd said. “Even if it’s only $500 and it pays for books, it will put that in the back of your mind. [Students] don’t realize how quickly these add up. 500 here, 750 there, two or $3,000 really adds up.”

We’re not saying turn your life around, all we’re saying is: What are you waiting for?