Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming to Taft

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1. Teachers Can Be Mean or Nice to You – Find Ways to Deal With It.
Christina Avanesian’s take on it, “There will be teachers that you won’t like, that’s normal. You just have to shift your focus on other things. Focus on your friends or the classes you actually like.”She is right! Regardless of whether you were an A student or any other student, I’m pretty sure you had that one teacher that you were convinced hated you the most because you either thought they had really high standards for you as a student or you just had a reason not to like them. Or maybe when you wanted to sit with your BFF so bad but that one teacher always called you out, or the time when you didn’t have your homework but your teacher called you up to the board and asked you to do the problem on the board. Yes, all those things happened because the teachers were just trying to do their jobs but still, you thought they were haters!

2. Cliques
We all know that one group of friends that always picked on everyone that didn’t look like them or act like them, it was almost like there is this natural law of everyone pairing with whoever looked liked them or based on similar personality traits. There were the class clowns, the jocks(bros), Social butterflies,the quiet ones, trouble makers,and of course the mean girls! Christina Avanesian, a freshman at Taft charter high school said,” I had too many expectations for people that they couldn’t live up to and that’s what brought me down. I had to realize that not everyone was going to be a good friend and that’s okay. Things change and that’s okay too. I learned that you’ll eventually find your place, things take time.”

 

3. Rumors
That kinda sounds like a big problem, I know, but sometimes you just can’t control what people say about others, or you… it’s high school and of course, it doesn’t take long for the rumors to take root. In high school, rumors mean that you are guilty until proven innocent and no one can change that because sometimes people just want to prove that they are cooler than others by stepping on other people’s feelings, I know that sucks but you just have to solve them without making your life harder make everything worse.so you might as well ignore it huh?

 

4. Classes are Difficult – Figure Out Good Study Skills
Zenna also said, “depending on the kind of classes, it can take a couple of hours to get work done after school, but the key to maximizing your time is based on how you prioritize your work, so if you have two assignments, one that’s due tomorrow and a larger one that’s due two days from tomorrow you would do the first one immediately and you should work on the second assignment in small increments.”

 

5. Time Management is Key
Back in middle school, you felt like you had all the time in the world to do your work and get it done but high school is much different because if you can’t manage your time you will be trying to hammer it down on your notebook or keyboard during lunch, nutrition or homeroom. Zenna’s take on this is, “this goes along with what I said earlier. It’s all about figuring out how much time you have for each assignment and delegating a certain amount of time for each assignment. don’t get caught up in perfecting one of your smaller projects when you still have a larger assignment that’s worth more of your grade.”

 

6. Getting Enough Sleep is a Super Important
Sleep is really important and it is one of the main priorities in high school, I get it, sometimes you have to stay up to finish up your PowerPoint or homework or anything but you need to make sure that you are getting enough hours of sleep, it’s good if you avoid oversleeping during the weekends and follow a normal sleep schedule. Turning off your electronics will also have a major effect on your sleep schedule and will help you to be more relaxed, I know it can be really hard for some of us to do that but I’m pretty sure none of us wants to get cancer or damage our eyes.
The recommended sleeping hours are:
9 to 9.5 hours for 10-year-olds
8 to 8.5 hours for 12-year-olds
7 hours for 16-year-olds
Zenna’s take on this is that “I don’t always get the most sleep that I should but I found that when I don’t sleep well I’m more tired for the next day and fall asleep in my classes, which leads me to perform poorly on tests. Being able to get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep maximizes your performance in your classes.”

7. Drama Can Be Exhausting- Try to Avoid It As Much As Possible
A lot of people take their time in high school really seriously and get involved with a lot of drama, but what they don’t know is that all the drama is worthless and never that serious. They tend to let that get in their way of studying and overall life which is wrong because after a few years everyone will be separated and the chance of you seeing all those people again is very small. High school drama can really lead to bigger problems like anxiety, depression, etc… yes…there are going to be people judging you based on your looks or the way you act.

Someday you will be coming home after spring break and it will hit you: OMG high school is about to be over. What are you going to do with your future!? Do you need a job? Will you even like college? All these questions are gonna start flashing in your head so don’t worry about the drama because no one can stop that and that is the last thing you should be worrying about.