The ACTUAL Last Blog Of The Semester

I don’t know about anyone else but for me, senior year so far has been an absolute train wreck. I’ve honestly never found myself wishing for break to come faster as much as I have this year, and I just genuinely need a break to gather myself and refresh without having to think about school, so I’m beyond glad that winter break is only 2 days away. 

Even though this year has gifted me with a strange pain in my spine that I cannot get rid of and plenty of sleep deprivation, I’ve made some pretty good memories and became friends with a lot more new people than I originally thought I would. I also joined another club (finally) that I find genuinely interesting and fun to be a part of. I’ve also been able to better myself with the help of my teachers and the people around me, so I guess that would be a plus.

I honestly feel like this year was really helpful in building not only who I am as a student but also who I am as a person. Through the majority of my courses, I learned that it’s always important to keep an open mind going into things or even when talking to different people because although you might not realize it, you can learn a lot from keeping an open mind. Although it might seem strange, it was one of my goals from junior year that I wanted to achieve, and Sociology was really helpful in this simply because there were a lot of topics that we discussed that required for everyone to stay open about. 

One really obvious but super important piece of advice that I would give to the almost seniors would be to just not procrastinate. Sounds easy on paper, but in my opinion, it’s actually really hard not to unless you’re just really studious (extremely jealous if you are like this). More than once, procrastinating has screwed me over. During college app season, I told myself over the summer that I would finish my apps way before the deadline, but if you just took a drive to the library a few days before November 1st, you would have found me practically living there, frantically typing away on my computer and then violently hitting the backspace button and sighing in disappointment when it doesn’t read how I want it to. It’s also really not helpful when you’re studying for tests for AP classes. Despite what I thought, a lot of my AP classes this year are A LOT of work. Putting in the time and effort to properly study without distractions is really important for the more demanding courses that they might choose to take, and finding the study techniques that work best for them would be really beneficial in the long run. It’s not to say that their whole year should be spent on studying and college apps. While senior year is pretty stressful in itself, it’s important to remember that it’s okay to have fun as well. Not everything has to be about school. Taking a nap, being with friends, going outside for a walk and some fresh air, or watching an episode of your favourite show is a good way to refresh. It’s essential to keep in mind that mental health comes first, and while that took me a while to learn, I want to emphasize that putting school and grades first is not healthy. Obviously its still a work in progress for me as well but it’s an important point to remember. 

For second semester, I want to better my studying habits and limit procrastination. Knowing myself, it seems pretty unrealistic, but I know that I can take little steps towards fixing it. I hope to branch out and participate in more social activities so that I can make more memories before leaving North. Either way, I hope that all of us are able to recharge during break and come back better rested and refreshed.