yikes, it’s junior year Katie Phail | ’20-’21 Director of Fundraising
Hey guys!!! Just checking back in with everyone to make sure quarantine is going alright for everyone and to give some (hopefully) helpful tips for rising juniors. Junior year is known to be the most intense year of high school since that's when you need to start becoming more serious about your future and make preparations for college. It can be a really intimidating and stressful year because there are so many different things that you are expected to do well for college. As a junior this year, there were many things that I wish I had known beforehand so I could have had a less stressful year. Although the circumstances of this year were unique, there are still a lot of tips that I hope can help you both in the classroom or online since we don’t know what the future holds. For both physical and distance learning, I would suggest taking small breaks while working on homework. Note that by “small breaks” I mean like short 5-10 intervals where you just get up, walk around, and clear your mind so you won't start to feel overburdened or extremely stressed, and I don’t mean for you to take breaks every 20 minutes but only when you start to feel really stressed. I didn’t really start trying this until later in the second semester and when online learning started, and I wish I had tried it earlier. Whenever I started to feel really stressed about the amount of work that I still had to do, I would just take a short break by leaving my workspace, walking into another quiet room, and clearing all the thoughts in my head. This helped prevent from getting too stressed and starting to panic about everything I had to get done. It seems so insignificant and that it won't help much, but by clearing your head and letting your mind and body relax, it will help you focus later on when you return to your work.
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