Throughout high school, students go through many different passions and experiences. In the end, there is often a lingering question of what else you could’ve or wished you’d done. We interviewed Palo Alto High School seniors about their biggest regrets from high school.
When asked what they would’ve done differently, many seniors reflected that they wished they had branched out sooner. For many, the regret was not one major mistake, but smaller choices that once seemed unimportant — the club they never joined, the people they never talked to, or the interest they never explored.
“My biggest regret is not joining more things with my friends, or branch(ing) out more,” senior Max Lebeck said.
The feeling wasn’t unique to Lebeck. For many seniors, the regret of staying on the sidelines in earlier years is something that stuck with them the most.
“One of the biggest things was not participating in clubs in my earlier years, especially freshman and sophomore year,” senior Aiden Shi said. “I didn’t participate in a lot of clubs, and now I feel a little out of the loop in things.”.
Branching out doesn’t only mean joining clubs. For some, it also meant meeting people they otherwise would not have known.
“Not being more open in my earlier years to finding new groups of people,” senior Suzanne Mondragon said. “I regret not being more open to hanging out with more people and diversifying my friend group.”
The same idea of hesitation also shaped how some seniors approached their interests.
Senior Keerthi Raj said that growing up in Silicon Valley pushed her toward a more traditional STEM path before she had figured out what she wanted to do.
“I didn’t really have a strong sense of identity because I was just doing what I thought I was supposed to do, based on what surrounded me,” Raj said. “When I started exploring what I was more interested in, I joined more extracurriculars, became more myself, and ended up being a more successful student. I just wish I had explored those options earlier instead of staying on the traditional path.”
Ultimately, what these seniors shared is a reminder that the pressure to have everything figured out already in high school is unfair. While many students feel pushed to lock into a specific path from the start, the reality is that interests change, and that’s normal.
According to a January 2025 study done by the Student Research Group, more than 80% of college students switch their major at least once. If students are still figuring out their interests in college, it follows that high school can be more about exploring than it is about having all the answers.
The messages from the graduating class are clear: Get involved early, prioritize what actually interests you over what looks good on paper, and give yourself room to figure things out along the way.