The 10 Commandments Of A High School Try-Hard

There are certain rules that you have to follow in order to fill the shoes of a declared try-hard. These are the high school try-hard commandments!

It is hard being a try-hard. There are certain rules that you have to follow in order to successfully fill the shoes of a declared try-hard. To past, present, and future try-hards, here is a list of ten painfully relatable commandments.

1. Thou shalt overwhelm thyself with too many clubs and activities.

Varsity tennis, debate team, chess club, photography, anime club… anything to fill up a college application.

2. Thou shalt not skip school.

Unless you’re skipping to study for another class, test, or international mathematics exam.

3. Thou shalt worship thine SAT, ACT, and AP prep books.

And then struggle to sell them for decent prices in the scramble to earn spending money for college. At least your scores were in the middle 50.

4. Thou shalt take too many APs.

Or Honors classes, or HLs for our IB counterparts out there. Either way, your idea of “Friday Night Lights” probably revolved around your desk lamp and computer screen as you pounded away at labs, problem sets, and outlines. Fun times.

5. Thou shalt run for all the club presidencies.

You had your eyes on board positions the moment you joined the club as a freshman. It was nice to dream about being the senior presiding over the meetings… until it became a reality. Hello, red tape.

6. Thou shalt never run out of caffeine.

And then discover that you have a low caffeine tolerance and spend the whole day regretting those two cups of coffee. Some of us are weaker than others.

7. Thou shalt apply to at least one Ivy.

Like the University of Michigan or the Michigan of the East (others call it Harvard).

8. Thou shalt study.

This one goes without saying. After all, how else would people classify you as a try-hard? But maybe you took it a step further and studied how to study. “That’s so meta.”

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9. Thou shalt praise the Common App.

It’s already efficient and accessible—plus you probably already had it on the homepage of your Chrome browser.

10. Thou shalt visit thine teachers after school ends.

This one isn’t limited to try-hards, but you’re more likely to go back to high school if you were one. Your teachers wrote you recommendation letters, encouraged you to apply to more reach schools, and chatted with you about their personal lives… you were basically friends by the end of senior year, and you deeply respected and appreciated them.