Welcome back everyone!

I’ve been thinking a lot about my high school experience thus far, as I often do, and I’m always asking myself one question. How can I make the most of my situation right now? We all have to go through high school (unfortunately), so we might as well make the most of it, right? I’m lucky enough to go to a good public school that is also fairly large, so there’s lots of opportunities available to high school students in my community. Even if that’s not your situation, here’s how you can make the most of what’s available to you!

• Do well/do your best academically – I know this is kind of an obvious thing, but a lot of people don’t think that freshman year matters, or don’t consider their future right away. Make sure to try your best all four years and take classes that challenge you. It will give you so many more/much better options when applying to colleges among other things in your future.
• Find out all of the extracurriculars offered, and get involved in ones you’re interested in – There are so many options at most schools! Sports, a variety of clubs, band, choir, academic teams like mock trial and academic decathlon, peer tutoring/volunteer opportunities, career education classes, journalism like the school paper or yearbook, among various others are the main things you can get involved in, but it depends on your school. If you’ve been participating in an activity since you were young continue it, but I would still recommend trying new things.
• Talk to people! – Find people with similar interests to you, talk to people in your classes, be open to making new friends, you get the drill. The people around you can really make or break your experience in any situation, so make an effort to find the right friends for you.
• Foster relationships with your teachers and counselors – These people are there to help you, and you’ll find a lot of them are really amazing people once you get to know them. I’m a shy person and I’m easily intimidated when talking to adults, but I’ve learned that reaching out to your teachers and counselors is the best thing you can do. They’ll like you more, and you’ll feel way more comfortable knowing they’re here to support you.
• Utilize college planning tools – Most schools have some form of college and career center, and often colleges will visit/there will be a college fair or multiple throughout the year. Utilize these connections if you know a school you’re interested in is coming to visit, and log into websites like Naviance once in a while.
• Go to dances and sports games – You only get so many homecoming football games or dances in your life, so go while you can! If these functions aren’t fun at your school and you/your friends would prefer doing something different, definitely do that instead- I know school spirit isn’t for everyone. However, I think everyone should at least try it.
• If they don’t offer an activity/class you want, advocate for it/try to start it – Leadership is a great skill to develop before becoming an adult, since you’ll need to advocate for yourself all the time. If you want an activity or class at your school, tell your counselor and other admin members. If you end up pulling it off, it will be a huge victory for you, and a great thing to put on college applications.
• Take advantage of elective classes – At my school, band/choir, journalism/yearbook, and student government are all considered electives. There’s also computer science, digital media, graphics, and a lot of tech classes. There’s even a few random electives like comparative religion and contemporary world issues! If there’s something you’re interested in as an elective, don’t be afraid to take it in place of a more boring, academic class. It will be more fun and you never know where it might take you.
• Don’t be afraid to try new things, and don’t be afraid to quit/drop things you don’t like – This is another obvious one, but it’s so important. It’s never too late to join something (I’ve joined a ton of activities this year as a sophomore), and it’s never too late to get out of something you don’t want to do anymore. Just do whatever you’re interested in and see where it takes you.

High school is difficult, but doing these things and utilizing the tools available to you can make it a lot easier. Understanding that it will be tough and some things may not work out how you would like is the first step to making the best out of your experience. Your attitude can make all the difference, so get out there and go conquer high school!

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

Being a teenager is hard; everyone says it, and we all know it’s true. It’s easy to feel like you need to act a certain way to be accepted by your peers, and we all want everyone to like us. In the long run, pretending to be someone other than your wonderful self will make things harder than they have to be. It’s cheesy advice, but it’s true- and I’m going to tell you exactly why it’s so important.

If you’re making a conscious effort to act differently than you normally would, you start to lose your old self. You won’t be able to distinguish your real personality from your new (fake) one, and this loss of identity can be very discouraging. I’ve experienced this myself, and it’s a really hard thing to deal with and recover from. Sometimes changing our behavior around others is almost a coping mechanism. For example, I’m a fairly shy/introverted person when it comes to meeting new people or being in large group settings, so I often act a lot more bland, boring, and frankly annoying when I’m with people I don’t know.

That strange behavior comes from me trying to make my shyness seem more natural and just a part of my personality, but it only makes things worse. I’ve been trying to work on being more outgoing and conquer my fears of public speaking and such for a while, and so far… I’ve made some baby steps, I guess? It’s natural for this type of altered personality to come into play if you experience shyness or social anxiety like me, but it can make things just as complicated as if you were changing your behavior on purpose.

Whichever way you slice it, a fake persona isn’t going to get you anything- except maybe a mini identity crisis. But how do you make sure you’re not subconsciously conforming to the strange social standards in order to fit in? No one has a perfect answer; we all feel peer pressure and we all have done something odd or dumb because of said peer pressure at some point. However, I will say that one of the things that’s helped me stay true to myself this past year is to stop caring about what you think of yourself.

This is a different approach than the typical “don’t listen to what others say/don’t care what other people think about you!” preach-y Pinterest quote, but it works the same way. (Don’t get me wrong, I love a good preach-y Pinterest quote; I’ve just heard this one too many times.) If you stop self-analzying and judging yourself on little things like your appearance, your social conduct, whatever else you do, it will carry over to other people. You can still judge yourself to a certain extent- I don’t think anyone can completely eliminate that- but it helps so much to just let it go.

For example, I might look in the mirror before heading to school and think, “Yikes, this is not my best look.” I can still think that, but I’m not going to freak out over it and change my outfit and put makeup on and be in a bad mood because I assume other people are judging my appearance. Instead, I’ll shrug, maybe do something that makes me feel a bit better like spray a nice perfume, and head out the door without a second thought. No one looks perfect everyday, and I certainly don’t care enough to try. I used to get caught up on those little things and try to dress with the trends, but I just don’t care anymore. Plus, I honestly just don’t have the time.

Speaking of time, we’re all pretty busy in high school. If you have a packed schedule of classes, school extracurriculars like sports/clubs/music, and volunteer work or jobs outside of school, you’ll stop over-analyzing the little things like being left out of a conversation at lunch or thinking that someone was judging you for saying the wrong answer to a question in class. You have to focus on the bigger picture and the fun engagements you have going on in your busy life.

We’re all still figuring ourselves out; no one really knows who they are yet. Not to throw a preach-y Pinterest quote in your face, but the best way to find yourself is to let yourself find you.

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

This topic randomly popped into my brain and I figured it was something significant enough to right about, since it’s very prevalent at my school. I’ve mentioned it in a couple of my other school-related posts, but there’s no sufficient space to sit down and eat at my high school, so everyone kind of stands around or takes part in lunch activities (clubs, tutoring, doing their homework) and skips actually eating. I’ve fallen prey to this habit myself since it’s the most common/easiest thing to do, but I’m going to talk about why this should be avoided.

Proper nutrition is actually very important for our brains/critical thinking/all that good stuff, so skipping one of the three core meals of the day is detrimental to your ability to perform well in school. Add to this that school starts so early in the morning that lots of kids don’t have time to eat a real breakfast; most people grab a bar or something small on their way out the door, or skip the meal altogether. With this issue and the lunch issue considered, lots of high school students don’t eat until after school- many have sports and other extracurriculars right after classes let out, so their first real meal could be anywhere from 5-8pm.

Not eating regularly throughout the day is not only bad for your mental abilities and your physical health, but it’s also bad for your moods. You will definitely be more irritable/grouchy and moody without the proper nutrition. I know I definitely get “hangry” pretty easily; I think I eat a bit more than the average teenage girl in general, but that’s a different topic for a different post.

In order to help combat this issue, I have a few suggestions. Bring snack food to school, especially if you have sports/other commitments going on right after school and won’t be eating dinner until even later. I know it’s not convenient to eat a normal full meal when there’s nowhere to stop and sit down, so that’s why convenient snack foods work perfectly. Try and choose foods with protein; they don’t have to only be healthy foods, but the healthier, the better. Note: I have a huge sweet tooth, and I am by no means the healthiest person when it comes to food choices and packing lunches- I’m working on it.

Another thing you can do is eat some of your food during classes where the teacher is okay with you eating in their room. I know around fourth period I need an energy boost, and my teacher doesn’t care if we eat; therefore, I always eat a granola bar or some fruit in his classroom. If you’re particularly close with a teacher and want an actual place to sit and eat lunch, you could also ask them if you can come in with a few friends during lunchtime. Then you will have a more permanent place to eat and that solves the no-place-to-sit dilemma!

Lastly, I have a few more solutions. I saved these for last since they’re probably my least favorite and I wouldn’t recommend doing them often, but they’re good for special occasions or when you’re in a pinch. You can use food delivery services like DoorDash or Postmates if your school allows it to get a healthy lunch (or unhealthy lunch) from wherever you choose; my classmates often do this. You can also buy a school lunch if you’re hungry and realize you didn’t bring food, or you can buy snacks from the vending machine if your school has one.

I hope this addressed any concerns about not having the proper meal habits at schools and gave you suggestions on how to combat this issue. I think it’s extremely important that we nourish our bodies and do everything we can to be as mentally and physically healthy as possible. Let me know if you have questions, comments, or requests for future content!

-Brooke

Welcome back everyone!

Last year during my freshman year of high school, I took my first AP class: AP Human Geography. I was intimidated at first, but I knew it couldn’t be too difficult since it was a class traditionally taken by freshmen. It ended up being one of my favorite classes I took that year, and I succeeded in getting a 5 on the AP test. If you’re a freshman and nervous to be taking this class, or you’re in any other grade and nervous to be taking this class- don’t worry too much! There’s a lot of really interesting course content and I promise you will be fine.

• Take detailed notes – Reading your textbook and really marinating in the content is key to understanding; the concepts aren’t too complex, you just need to take in the information. I find that taking good notes is the best way to do this since you can easily refer back to the most important parts of the readings. Whatever note-taking method your teacher advises or you normally use is fine, just make sure you are including specifics in your notes and lots of examples/explanations for things! A lot of human geography is about the “why” and not the “what”.
• Practice old FRQs throughout the year – My teacher always put a couple old AP test FRQs on our unit tests so we did this automatically, but if your teacher doesn’t, practice these yourself! It will prepare you for the AP test in May, but it also really improves your writing skills and your general understanding of the course content.
• Know your terms/definitions – There are A LOT of terms and definitions in this class, so you’ll want to stay on top of them. Make quizlets for each unit and definitely review them before each unit test so you know all the terminology used in questions/answers; some questions on the AP test genuinely are just definitions/terms, just with slightly trickier wording.
• Buy a prep book – You can wait to buy a prep book until the AP test and study crunch time is coming closer, but I would actually recommend buying it towards the beginning of the year. Since prep books are meant to be a review of all the general course content, they often break things down in a summary/simpler way- if you’re ever confused on a concept during the year, you can refer to a prep book and it should make it easier to understand.
• Know the models!! – You’ll learn about various types of models (different city models, demographic, etc.) throughout the course, and it is SO important to know the differences and the significance of all of them. There’s usually an FRQ on interpreting one of the models each year on the AP test and there’s quite a few multiple choice based on them. They can also help explain a lot of the other concepts in the course, so definitely study the models a lot.
• Examples are key – As I stated before, a lot of human geography is about the “why” and not the “what”, so it’s important to be able to provide explanations and examples of different terms and concepts. When you’re reading the textbook and making notes, definitely write down all examples that are mentioned. These are super helpful for FRQs as well.
• Utilize others’ study materials – Since it’s an AP class, there’s tons of online resources (other people’s quizlets, YouTube videos, websites/blogs, etc)- make sure to use these if you need them! They can supplement your own study materials and possibly explain things in new ways.
• Study in advance and try your best! – As long as you stay on top of your work and study for every test, it shouldn’t be too different from any other class. I am confident you all will do amazing as long as you’re trying your best.

I hope this little guide put your minds at ease if you are currently an apprehensive AP Human Geography student. I personally found the class super interesting, and I was lucky enough to have a wonderful and funny teacher which made it even better. I think it’s a great first AP class to take since the concepts are a bit more general and usually apply to things you already understand in the real world- it’s a mix of a lot of different subjects in history. I’m always here to answer questions, so let me know if you guys ever need human geo help!

-Brooke