Welcome back to your 4 year prison sentence!(high school) I know that everyone hopes for an amazing school year, but that usually just turns into barely passing most classes by the fourth quarter. Trust me, I know. This year is going to be different. I see the people who always come to school looking put together, get amazing grades, has a job, goes to the gym, and has an amazing social life. Our goal for this year: to become one of these people! We’re actually going to get our lives together and not only be the best students we can be, but also the best us we can be.

Summer

It might seem too early to start this journey in summer, but I really recommend it. This is truly the best time to start building healthy habits because you don’t have any school responsibilities. I recommend starting to build morning and nighttime routines, so that when school starts you’re already prepared. I also recommend becoming more active. During the school year we spend most of our day sitting in our desks. Summer is the time to go outside more and maybe start going to the gym. Planet fitness offers a deal for students where they can come in and workout during the summer for free. Who doesn’t love free things? Besides, then you can see if going to the gym is something that works for you or not without having to waste your money.

Grades

This is the part we all look forward to the least, actually doing our work. If you’re at all like me you used to turn in 15 papers the last day that they were due. First, let’s not get to the point where we’re missing that many assignments. Do your best to not miss too many days. Catching up because you are absent is really hard because you weren’t there to learn the material like how everyone else was.  If life just gets busy so you fall behind, maybe consider taking 1 day out of every other weekend to catch up. Most failing grades happen because of missing assignments. If a poor grade is because you are having trouble understanding the material, consider going to tutoring with friends. It’s less scary to ask for help if you’re not doing it alone.

Friends/Family

School shouldn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your relationships. If anything, it’s really important that you have people who support and care about you. If you find yourself feeling detached from relationships, it’s ok to put school on the backburner for a little bit to make time for yourself and the people who care about you.

Health

When attending school it is very important to be in good health. I feel like there are two most important sections of health: mental and physical. It’s a lot to cover so I’ll divide it up.

Physical-

Physical health is the thing I think most students neglect the most. First of all please don’t go to school sick. When your body is fighting a virus the last thing that you should be doing is sitting in geometry learning the Pythagorean theorem. It’s better to take time to get your body back to a healthy state then forcing yourself to go to school. Also, it’s annoying when you’re sick and because you refuse to stay home you get other people sick. Another thing to focus on is staying active. When you sit at a desk for 8 hours a day, it’s easy to get out of shape. Feeling good about yourself is really important to staying motivated. Eat balanced meals, drink water, try to do some sort of physical activity and you will start to feel much better.

Mental-

It’s common for the modern student to experience burnout and then give up on their grades. The key to avoiding this is to make sure you make time for yourself. Some people do meditation, others may take a quiet walk, do whatever you feel is necessary to recharge your mind for the next day. Something else that I think not enough people talk about is keeping yourself accountable. Students tend to fall into the habit of using mental health as an excuse. It’s ok if you need time to bring yourself back to center. Then once you get there, start to slowly pick up the pieces again. Let your teachers and counselors know what’s going on. Some may offer accommodations like extended due dates. The hardest part is to start, but once you get the ball rolling you’ll be back on track.

Balance

Out of everything here, finding balance is the most important part of the process. Sometimes your life will consist of 80% of your energy put towards school. Sometimes it will only be 15%. That is completely ok and part of this journey. There is no balance in life without both ends. Highschool is hard, it is demanding, and sometimes it sucks. But, if you try to incorporate some of this advice, it doesn’t need to be so hard. Take everyday one minute at a time. You got this and I believe in you!