prettyndsweet12 asks: Can you give me some tips for going back to school?
Hi prettyndsweet12 –
I don’t know your exact age or school year now, but here are some tips in general for anyone going back to school:
1) Try to schedule your time as well as you can from the beginning. If a teacher tells you on the first day that you’ll have a big project due in three months, you might want to put some reminders on your calendar to set yourself up to get started on it early, so you don’t find yourself in a miserable situation two and a half months from now.
2) Decide which friends you’d like most to hang out with this year. There are probably a bunch of kids you spent some time with last year, but now that you’ve had a break, you can choose to spend more time with some and less with others, before you get into new routines. Was one often insulting to you? Is one starting to get into stuff that you don’t want to? Was one nice but boring? Great, here’s a chance to put more effort into hanging out with that other one who thinks you’re cool, who likes the things you like, and makes you laugh all the time.
3) Figure your teachers out! Who’s the one who has a great sense of humor and will enjoy you saying a joke to in the morning? Who’s the one who’s a big sourpuss and will dock your grade 50% if your homework is one day late? Who’s the one who really cares about kids and would be the good one to go to when there’s something difficult you need to talk about? And who’s the one who’s scary in some way, and you just want to get through the year with, without getting hurt in any way? The sooner you can learn these things, the better (though of course, you might change your mind on any of them at any time).
4) This is a great time to make any changes in your diet or exercise, since you’re creating a new schedule. Would you like to lose some weight this year? Maybe you can walk into school and say “I won’t eat any candy at school this year.” That’d be great. Handsome had a friend when he was growing up who discovered that there was a particular brand of grape soda that made his face break out. And of course that brand was in a machine at their school. Well, this friend walked into school saying he could eat or drink anything but that, and did fine. Or you could say that this year, you’re going to spend an hour after school every day going running. Fantastic. And if you can do that run with a fantastic friend on a leash by your side, all the better!
5) And similarly, but maybe most important of all, decide who you want to be this year. Were you mean to someone last year? Were you too shy? Were you a class clown, or scared to ever answer a question from the teacher? The beginning of school for a kid is like New Year’s Day for grownups – it’s a great time to make resolutions and start over in your life. If you can do that, I truly believe you will have the best year of your life so far.
6) And I say “so far,” because if you can do these same things again next year, that’ll be even better!
Oh and one more: Have FUN!
Cheers,
Shirelle