I just want to publicly unleash my wrath at Disney Channel for making me believe high school would be a thrilling feudally hierarchized warzone, until I actually got there and realized it was more like an “if you’re shy and average looking then literally nothing at all will happen to you during four years” kind of experience.
hi there! to celebrate the new school year (i start this feb!) i decided to compile a masterpost of study tips + lifestyle tips that i’ve seen on tumblr over the past few months, that i thought were super helpful! hopefully these will help you guys too (:
Did I ever tell you all about the time my dad was teaching and a student climbed IN the window?
I only got like two responses on this but it’s one of my favorite stories from my dad’s classroom so buckle up.
So my dad taught junior English at a local high school, he taught on the second story of a building that was built back when schools had large windows that opened, and his windows faced the front of the building.
So one day in like April he’s teaching Moby Dick or Gone with the Wind or something with the windows open a crack to allow spring air into the classroom and one of the windows opens further and a kid climbs in through the window.
This kid, who hasn’t been at school since winter break, puts his finger to his lips. crouches for a second under the window, crawls to the classroom door, peaks out the window in the door, opens the door and slips into the hall.
He apparently then dashes down the hall, slips through the door into another junior English class (taught by my dad’s friend), where he again puts his finger to his lips, jogs across the room, climbs out the window (which faced a courtyard on the backside of the front hall) and disappears.
Turns out, the kid had been in a juvenile detention center since Christmas, escaped, and decided no one would look for him in his school. To this day I have no idea what happened after he climbed into the courtyard.
#this kid and the pie kid are my favories
Please tell about the pie kid because this story is hilarious and I want to hear about the pie kid
Ah yes, pie kid. The pie kid is legendary at the school.
So my dad’s school has faculty meetings every Teusday after school, and the teachers would all bring food (because after 7+ hours of school even teachers are hungry then they have to sit in a meeting for at least an hour talking about test scores or whatever).
So this kid, I don’t know what the motivation here was, but he would sneak into the library and take food from the meetings. Usually they just let him because, I mean, he’s not really harming anything. That just made him bolder though. One day he began taking an entire pie from the meetings.
So one day he’s sitting in the hall eating an entire pie because high school, and security took offense at this (because he was in the building after all students were supposed to leave, also he was apparently a trouble maker who security was familiar with) and this is where the story starts getting a little crazy.
Obviously, when security shows up, pie kid runs (carrying the uneaten half of his pie). This becomes a normal Teusday afternoon sight: security chasing pie kid through the halls as he’s eating pie stolen from a faculty meeting. The kid regularly found himself in odd corners of the building, including the roof, the boiler room, the field house, the magnet school behind the high school, etc. hiding from security and eating his pie.
Eventually, security caught up with him and his pie and dragged him to the principal’s office.
Now, the principal at this point is a little.. strict. He runs a tight ship.. or thinks he does.. you know those people who are VERY concerned with their world being EXTREMELY orderly and the world just stares them in the face and refuses? That was this principal’s life. He was trying to make a 2,500 student high school walk in lock step. As shown by the last story, that doesn’t happen at this school.
So the principal is alerted that pie kid, who’s been on the run from security for 2 months, is in his office with today’s pie. So the kid waits in the office finishing his pie and the principal walks in, closes the door, sits down, and says something like “what is going on?”
At this point the kid (who has finished his pie of the day) gets up, calmly walks over to the window, opens it, climbs out, hops the bushes under the window, and runs away.
That was the last anyone at the school saw him.
Well that was unexpected but a lovely tie in and that school needs to have better control of its windows.
I’m sure you can see the fear in my eyes. First day of junior year. And the IB program. Rip me.
it can be a lot to take in. so first, take a deep breath.
if you ever find yourself slacking off and procrastinating, remind yourself that this is the big leagues. the grade of this class could literally change your college future.
try to get into the habit of studying every night. even if it’s just making a couple note cards of what you learned that day in class, going over something multiple times in the same day will help it stick. trust me.
high schools typically have a wide range of electives, take a cool and new class while you can! always wanted to learn an instrument? take music! have a passion for art but haven’t done a whole lot with it? take sculpting or pottery or photography! expand your horizons.
it’s okay to not be a straight-A honors student. sure, it could be amazing to be one, but it’s perfectly fine to be average.
study. for. your. standardized. tests. whether it’s the ACT or SAT or your country’s equivalent, you’ll be happy that you studied.
but know that you can take the ACT and SAT a bunch of times. yes, it’s super important to study, but it doesn’t all come down to that one number. (fun fact: i took the ACT 3 times)
odds are your high school is going to be bigger than the previous school you were in. expect a lot of people and try to not let it overwhelm you. the world is a big place.
start thinking about if you’ll want to do AP or IB your last two years of high school. ask around, get to know the teachers, learn about the program, and find out if it’s right for you.
things can get… clique-y. don’t feel pressured to be popular. popular people are most likely peaking in high school anyways.
yes, you’ll be applying for college in a few years. no, you don’t have to. it’s fine to choose to take a gap year or go to community college or go straight into work or to have no idea what you want to do. just do what works for you. you’ll have time to think about it.
things can suck in high school. there’s drama and stress and frustration and confusion and sometimes it all just… sucks. but i promise youthat this feeling is temporary. it’ll get better. (i’m awkward af but feel free to message me if you ever just need to talk or to vent or need a friend, my messages are always open ☺️)
don’t feel pressured to have your life sucked up by thinking about your career/college future. it’s good to think about, but focus on the now.
don’t think that you have to go to parties or get drunk or have sex or do drugs to be cool. not only is this pointless but it’s also dangerous. parties are trouble. (plus high school parties are lame, tbh. i’d much rather be at home watching netflix)
you won’t see it until around graduation, but you’ll have a lot of personal growth throughout the next couple years. high school is a time for learning and growing as a person. so it’s normal to feel like things are just… weird. because they are. thing’s are changing, but for the better.
this is just another step in life. it’s new, it’s fun, it’s stressful, it’s crazy, it’s weird, and it’s great. dive in.
if you realize you’ve been studying for hours: grab a snack to refuel your body and watch a sitcom to refuel your brain. then back to the books.
if you’re feeling stressed out: take some deep breaths, text your friends, maybe stair at a wall for a few minutes. gather yourself.
if you can’t seem to focus: get moving and get outside. take out the garbage, check your mail box, maybe walk your dog. just get moving and get fresh air. it’ll help bring you back.
if there’s something else going on in your life and you can’t get it off your mind: write down what’s going through your head, sort of like a diary entry. it’ll help you work things out.
if you’re just mentally and physically exhausted: set a timer for 25-30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll hit REM and you’ll wake up feeling just as tired. once you wake up, get some caffeine in you.
if the material is boring as hell: find another way to study. see if there’s a crash course video online about it or draw out what you’re trying to learn in diagrams and pictures to make it fun.
if people around you won’t shut up: listen to some music. soundtrack and classical music is always good because they won’t absorb you as much as music with lyrics. white noise (like ocean waves, rain sounds, etc.) also works.
if you only half understand a concept: call/message a friend who’s not in the class and try to teach the material to them. this will help you mentally work through the material and will help you remember it as well.
CaptainBubblebath 