Tri-Color Times 2016-05

Page 1

Granger high school

Tri-Color Times An open forum for student opinion and expression

TRICOLORTIMES.COM

May 2016 LVIII-8

Ridiculous alarms deprive Lancers of sleep Opinion by Taylor Wolfley ONCE I stopped bleeding under my eye, I realized I needed to get used to this new sleep schedule. I have been having an issue with sleeping in lately. I would go to sleep late at night and wake up super early. I have seen that this habit makes me very sluggish during the school day, and I needed to change that. My morning routine would start with my first alarm going off at 4:30 a.m. I would then decide to snooze that alarm until my 5:15 a.m. alarm went off. This continued until I finally get up around 6:00 a.m. All of these alarms were just part of my sleeping schedule, and I was used to it. Little did I know how negatively this was affecting my day. I always had friends, family members, and even teachers ask-

ing if I was OK. My response to them would always be, ‘I’m fine, just a little tired.’ I hated being so slow and tired all day and yet, I still did nothing to change it. The same alarms would go off every morning, and I would have the same routine of snoozing them until I knew I had to get up. This only made me have a horrible attitude and just be mad and tired every single day. A lot of people did not appreciate my attitude during the day. I would always be snippy with people or get angry at the smallest things. I’m usually a very happy and positive person, but when I was trying to wake up at 4:30 a.m. every day, I wasn’t particularly in the best mood all day. I wanted to change that. One day, Mr. Carlisle challenged me to turn off all of my

alarms, and have just one alarm for 6:45 a.m. I was very hesitant to try this, because of my horrible snoozing habit, but I took him up on it. That night, I went home and turned off all my alarms and created one new one for 6:45 a.m. I was very nervous for the next morning, not knowing if I was going to snooze the alarm or not. I was also scared because my mind was not used to waking up that late. I knew that my brain would act on its own, and snooze the alarm. The worst thing about me snoozing my alarms was that I would never remember doing it, thus making me believe that I could continue to hit the snooze button. As I suspected, my mind told me that I could snooze the alarm, thinking that it was only 4:30 a.m. I was then 30 minutes late to first period, and all Mr. Carlisle could

do was laugh with at my first attempt at this experiment. I had Mr. Carlisle for first period every day, so we made an agreement that while I was testing this new sleeping system, he would not mark me tardy. I was very grateful, obviously. The next day was worse than the first. My brain just could not get used to breaking my habit of snoozing my alarms. This new sleeping schedule was not working out, but I did feel way more rested, and more energized during the day. As I continued to try to get used to this new alarm system, my mornings became more hectic. My morning routine was now extremely rushed: taking a shower, getting dressed, doing my hair, making my lunch, and getting my backpack ready was very stressful. continued below

Taylor Wolfley worked hard to start a new sleep schedule. It took a lot of adjustment to her habits to stop snoozing and use only one alarm.

This was all because I refused to not snooze my alarm. I was starting to get angry at myself for not being able to wake up on time. I was irritated because I was currently losing the challenge that Mr. Carlisle gave to me. Then I remembered that I have been on that new sleeping schedule for only a few days, whereas I had been using my 4:30 a.m. alarm for three years. I just had to be patient, and that is very frustrating to me; I am the most impatient person you will ever meet. The best thing about this was that people were seeing a difference in my appearance, and so could I. I was no longer drowsy in classes, and felt great. Every morning was still a challenge; it involved a lot of stress and anxiety. I hate to be late, so being tardy

almost every morning was hard for me. In the mornings, it was a rush to get everything done in such a small amount of time. The thing that saddened me the most was that I no longer left

It has now been a little over a month since I started this experiment, and I have noticed that I am slowly getting used to waking up to my alarm. Now don’t get me wrong, I still have my horrible days when I

“Every morning was a challenge: each involved a lot of stress and anxiety.” myself enough time to even try to make breakfast. But once again, it was my own fault. The weekends were Heaven with no alarms at all, but I started to notice that I would wake up on my own at around 6:45 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday morning. I then knew that I was finally getting used to this new schedule.

am rushed because I snoozed my alarm. I had my worst morning by far recently. I woke to my alarm, and no surprise: I snoozed it, by the time I actually got up was around 7:15 a.m. I hurriedly got in the shower. I was extremely rushed this particular morning because this was

the latest I’d ever snoozed the alarm, and as I was getting out of the shower, I was moving too fast for a wet area, and slipped coming out of the shower. I hit my face on the corner of the counter, and got a nasty cut under my eye. It was in this moment that I realized I really needed to get used to my new alarm. All in all, getting two extra hours of sleep has really paid off, I’m now always alert in my classes, I have a good and happy attitude all the time, and I have really enjoyed it. I would challenge anyone who has alarms set ridiculously early to try this experiment, I won’t lie, it was hard to get used to, but you will not regret it. It has such an amazing impact on my mood for the whole day. That extra sleep is worth all those hectic mornings in the end.

Early Graduation

By Angel G. Figueroa IT’S CLOSE to the end of the school year, and for most seniors, that means graduation. Although, some students don’t want to wait until their senior year to graduate, and they have good reason to do so. “Well, I decided to graduate early because I’m smart enough and I have good enough grades to do it,” Dominick Wiley (11) said. Wiley only needs seven more credits until he is done with high school. Also, he also has a good reason to graduate early before all of his classmates. “When I graduate I’m going to get a scholarship for doing so, and that will help me with the college that I plan to attend as well,” Wiley said. By getting all of his credit early, he has another advantage that he is looking forward to. “Other students would enjoy early breaks. I guess I would like that too, so I’m looking forward to that,” he said. Wiley thinks that working hard and getting good grades is the way to do this. “I didn’t know about graduating early, but I still worked my butt off to get the grades that I have today,” he said. “Finding that out just made me push even harder to get better grades and to get all of my credits.” Nicole Baker (12) already graduated this year, and she has been out working for college. “I got all my credits, and I thought it would be nice if I started to work to save up for college. That’s one of the main reasons. The other reason is that I was done with school,” Baker said. Although she got out of school, she’s been working full time. “I been working and nothing really has changed. I don’t have any free time, and it’s all for college,” she said. Although she graduated early, she wouldn’t recommended it to anyone in school. “In my opinion, I wouldn’t tell anybody to graduate early because it’s like the same thing, but without your friends,” she said. Another disadvantage is that she doesn’t know what’s happening in Granger. “I have no idea what’s going on at Granger,” she said. “Like school dances, events, and worst of all, getting my cap and gown. I didn’t even know the date to that and if it weren’t for my mom, I would’ve forgotten all about it,” she said. Although graduating early seems like bad idea to some students, others might find it easy to start their lives and go into the work force. In Baker’s case, although it seems like a lot of hard work right now, she knows it is going to get better.

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