That's a nice bike but your seat looks WAY too low for commuting.
Anyway I put over 5000 miles on a specialized hardrock sport (~$300)with all the original components and 1.5" slicks including bagging 2 centuries on it, commuting to work 25 miles a day, rain or shine, couple of high speed crashes, everything's fine, wheel's 1-2mm off true (make sure you tension em real good the first time, that's what matters). Just remember, it's all about you, the bike is secondary.
What you have now looks good. I'd get a cheap 2nd set of wheels with knobbies on it if you want to do trail riding. So you have a set with slicks for commuting and a set with knobbies for trail riding. Get some lights on it.
And since you're in high school, it's very important to look cool. You're only a freshman and some people might accuse you of being some yuppie poseur walking around with a messenger bag but once they see that you're commuting in 5 days a week, they'll know you're hardcore, aight? Get a large messenger bag to hold all your crap so you don't end up with a rack on your bike when you go mountain biking. Also get some clip on fenders.