The Art of Making Friends

One of the most daunting things about entering high school, middle school even, is meeting new people.  Most students are inclined to stick to their “old” group of friends from their previous school.  THIS IS BAD!  When coming to a new school you want to make sure that you keep an open mind.  Kids who stick with their “old” group of friends are usually categorized as either shy or sometimes even ignorant.  Although, these are hardly your intentions, this is what people think.  You just feel more comfortable with your “old” friends, right?

I think that one of the best reasons to make new friends is to have more fun.  You’ll always have your best friends, but it’s healthy to make new “regular” friends.  These are the people you can talk to in school, wave to in the hallway, and ultimately count on if you need help with either school, or problems at home, or emotional issues.  Now back to the fun thing.  The reason that meeting new friends makes school more fun is that in between classes you’ll have more people to talk to and more people to go out with (theatres, mall, beach, restaurants, etc…).

In terms of academics, it’s good to meet new people because  you get variety!  Say for instance all of your “old” friends are good at english but not at math. By meeting new people, you probably have friends who are good at math now.  By having more “regular” friends in your life, or at least people that you are socially active with, you’ll feel more comfortable at school.  You’ll feel less judged by others.  When I first entered high school I felt like everyone was staring at me and judging me in some way.  Fast forward a few months, and I felt like high school was one huge security blanket.  By just putting myself out there and not being afraid of people I forged lasting memories that made me feel like I was a part of something special.

I understand that there are “cliques” or “stereotypes” in high school, but the key is to put a smile on your face, be pleasant, and ALWAYS KEEP AN OPEN MIND.  I never paid attention to cliques.  If there was someone that I wanted to talk to I put my social face on and talked to them.  For all I know they were probably relieved that someone new was talking to them or they were just as nervous about what I thought of THEM.

The last, but most important rule is to BE OPTIMISTIC.  No one likes a downer.  Downers and pessimistic people are the ones who never make new friends.  There is no reason to wear a scowl and if you do then no one will care about you.  It will make high school miserable!!!!  Let me make this very clear, I’m not saying you should go out and make a million friends, but even a few new friends is great!  Just a few new people who share similar interests can make all the difference in high school

The Art of Surviving High School Cliques

Cliques!... Cliques... Where should I begin? Cliques were probably the most annoying part of high school. It will still annoy you even after reading my opinion about them. The thing you have to understand about cliques is that no matter how much you try to ignore them, you can't! Cliques are those groups of people who always make you feel like an outsider. However, what many people fail to focus on is that cliques aren't really cliques. That doesn't make sense, right? However, in reality, it makes perfect sense. Most people that are involved in a clique trash talk all of their fellow clique-mates. Trust me! I was involved in a few "cliques" in high school. The minute Billy Bob turns their back, Barbara Ann starts to talk about how annoying and obnoxious he is, not to mention how she can't stand him.

This is why it's good not to be involved in cliques. There is a huge difference between having a group of friends and being in a clique. Cliques are full of people who are alike in some major aspect, whether they're all jocks or they're all goths. The only reason people are friends with people in cliques is because they can make other people who aren't like them feel like they don't belong, thus increasing their self esteem. A group of friends is people who can get along and have a good time with each other... PERIOD! Don't ever feel like you aren't good enough to be involved in a clique, because when high school ends and reality sets in, you'll realize that all of these people were never actually friends to begin with.

The Art of Forming Relationships with Teachers

“The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called ‘truth.’” – Dan Rather (American News Anchor and former news anchor for the CBS Evening News)

Teachers have one of the most difficult jobs, which is to educate young people on everything from mathematics to proper grammar.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re in grammar school, high school, or college, forming a relationship with your teachers is vital to your academic success and in all honesty, makes school more fun!  High school would have been miserable if it weren’t for the vibrant teachers that taught me.  Sure, they knew what they were talking about, but it was the funny connections they made to real life and the jokes they cracked that made me smile, even during the most stressful times.

The key to forming relationships with teachers is to always be yourself!  Let me give you a little advice too, DON’T BE A SUCK UP!  There is a very fine line between having a very smooth, fluid relationship with a teacher -practically being friends with them - and being a straight up brownnoser.  If you can stick to being you, your teachers will give you a ton of respect.  I was always a social, involved (obviously nice) person in front of my family and friends and none of that changed when I entered the classroom... and there was no reason not to! My teachers liked me for who I am and your teachers will like you for who YOU are.

When you enter the classroom, there is an unsigned contract between the student and the teacher... a contract?! Yes, a contract. Pretty much what this contract establishes is that if a teacher takes an interest in you that you should take an interest in their class. Do you honestly think a teacher is going to take to you if you do nothing in their class? You have to participate! Raise your hand! Hand in your homework and assignments on time! ASK QUESTIONS! Never be afraid to ask your teacher for help. This shows them that you are putting your all into passing the class. Your goal is to make sure that at the end of the day, all of your teachers know that you put effort into their classes. And don't give me that "My teacher hates me... they're out to get me" speech because 9 times out of 10 you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

When it comes time to apply to college or graduate school, you will have a basket full of teachers to ask for recommendations from. Remember what I said earlier about the last impression you give your teacher? If you try hard then this will become evident in their letters and will ultimately help you accomplish whatever it is that you wish to pursue. Heck, I still talk to my high school teachers on Facebook!

The Art of Running for an Office

One of the funnest parts of my high school experience was running for the office of president of the National Honor Society. Depending on the atmosphere of the campaign you might have to decide what lengths you need to go to to secure that position. Don't run for a position just to see how popular you are, because you might be stealing this opportunity from one of your fellow classmates who truly wants the position in order to better the school or the club that you are in. In my case, a simple "spread the word" was sufficient for the most part. In other cases you may have to organize a fullblown campaign with banners, poster, pins, and you may have to make a campaign speech.

The key to running for an office is to exute confidence and make sure you put effort into your campaign. The following steps should help:

1. Find out who the advisor of your class is (or the club or association) and submit your name to them with the position you wish to fulfill.


2. Make a "battle" plan either alone or with friends (these are basically your campaigners) that are IN the same class, club or association. You want to either obtain or make a rough list of all of the voters. You need to have an overall view of how hard it will be to obtain this position. Generally, if you and your campaigners think that certain people will vote for you then you can decide which people have other allegiances.


3. Once you plan out which people will be critical to winning the election, you should (now keep in mind that you can do this whole thing yourself or as a group) divide these "critical people" amongst yourselves.


4. When approaching voters, whether you know them or not, be polite and cordial. There is no need for mudslinging and no need to bash anyone. Just express how much you want the position and why you think you can serve your constituents the best.


5. Take a look at how much time you have until the election and make daily checks on where "critical people" stand in terms of who they are voting for. You should aim for anything more than 50%. In other words, you want to make sure that more than half of the voters are voting for you. This is your goal.


6. Make sure that you and your campaigners "check up" on voters to double check that they are voting for you.
7. About half way through your campaign, you should now divide all of the people you think are going to vote for you. Make sure that they are actually going to vote for you and if not try to convince them that you want the position.
8. Near the end of your campaign count up the amount of people that are voting for you. If more than 70% of the people say that they are voting for you then you will most definitely win!

If you want to "up" your chances of winning, you can put posters up around the school or you can even make pins if you want. Any means to winning is a NECESSARY MEAN. Just no bashing! If you have to make a speech then you should jot down why you want the position and why you're the best candidate, but DON'T write your whole speech out because you will come off as fake. Let your fellow classmates know that you TRULY WANT the position. Your speech and your campaign will show your classmates whether or not you truly want the position. If you run a vigorous campaign, they will notice it.

Good Luck!

The Art of Getting Involved in Extracurricular Activities

Academics are of vital importance to your high school career; however, so are extracurriculars. Clubs and sports are not only ways to meet new people and develop a social network in school, but it is a way to boost your resume. The key to finding extracurriculars that interest you is to try as many of them as you want.

Extracurriculars are one of the best ways to relieve stress. When I was in high school, I was on the swim team. For the two hours a day I was there, I was in heaven, because I didn't feel like I had the weight of schoolwork on my back. I was also a part of the newspaper and I felt that writing about a topic of choice relieved the stress of being forced to write about less interesting topics in class. I find that people who do not do any extracurriculars are the most stressed and the least happy.

Clubs and Sports also look great on college applications! Sometimes extracurriculars are what set you apart from the crowd. A college admissions committee member could be comparing your application with someone else's and the two of you could have the same academic standing, but then they notice that you participated and invested yourself in more extracurriculars. A few months later you open your mailbox and you find out you are accepted to that college. The key word is to "invest" yourself in that club or sport. In other words, put all of your effort into it because the achievements you make are also what colleges are looking for. For example, if you join the Science Olympiad, that's great, but it looks even better to be the captain or to win an event. The point is to not only do schoolwork to your best ability, but to do EVERYTHING to your best ability.

Another little tidbit I want to throw in is to just do it! I'm going to tell you a little story, from my high school experience, and hopefully you'll understand that it's okay to join something that you aren't sure about. It was sophomore year and one day after school, my friend John told me that he was going to a meeting. I asked him, "What meeting?" and he said, "It's for if you want to join the tennis team". Two seconds earlier I had no intention of joining the tennis team, but just because it sounded like fun to me, I went! Although I only did it that one year, it turned out to be a lot of fun. If I never decided to join that spring, it would have been the most boring time of my life.

You also have to learn not to be afraid of what people think. If it's something that even for a second you think you might enjoy, then join! If you don't like it then you can quit, but if it turns out that you like it then wouldn't you be happy that you acted on that instinct? Extracurriculars are also the best place to forge memories that will last a lifetime!

The Art of Note Taking

Some students, myself included, have or had a hard time taking notes. What a lot of people do not realize is that its okay to take a lot of notes. Note taking is about doing what is comfortable for you! After all, the more notes you take the easier it will be to study for tests and quizzes.

The first key to taking notes is to maintain a constant bulleting system. This will make it easier to look up topic subjects in your notebook. For example (let's pretend you're in biology):

I. Organelles

a. Mitochondria

1. Powerhouse of the cell

b. Golgi Apparatus

1. Creates lipids and proteins

As you can see, if I'm looking for a broad topic I can easily skim the left hand column, but if I'm looking for a specific topic I can use the broad topics and narrow it down. If you simply jot down notes like this:

• Organelles
• Mitochondria
• Powerhouse of the cell
• Golgi Apparatus
• Creates lipids and proteins

then it will be difficult to reference something in your notebook.

If you have a teacher who lectures but doesn't write notes on the board then it's fine to have a lot of notes, because sometimes it's hard to tell what information is important. However, sometimes the teachers will say specifically "Does everybody understand this because it's something you need to know" or "This will be on your test", then obviously write that down. After you write it down, put a little star next to it or highlight it, so that when you're studying you know that you have to memorize it.

If you have a teacher who writes notes on the board then copy what they write. There is usually no need to write more than the teacher writes because they wouldn't waste their time writing useless information.

Just remember, the only time you write too much is when you've surpassed that amount of pages in your text book! Note taking is to your satisfaction!

Studying for Finals: The Art of Gaining Confidence

I am currently a freshman biology major at Hofstra University on Long Island and it is safe to say that I have learned a lot about studying for finals. Needless to say, I am not going to sit here and tell you that you can do it the night before OR that it will require no work. In high school, I had many experiences where I studied properly and got high marks OR studied the night before by "skimming" my notes and got passing marks, but not close to my potential.

The first step to making studying a stress-free process is to PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS. I know that sometimes it can get boring, but if you don't take notes in class then you'll have to reread your text book in order to study for finals. If you are reading this and you are half through the semester and you haven't taken notes THEN GET STARTED!!! The more notes you take now, the less text book reading you will have to do later.

The next step is to gather all of the tests you took over the semester. In addition, you will want to grab the sheet titled "Final Exam Review". A lot of times, teachers will go over exactly what topics will be on the exam. If they don't then this is why keeping all of your tests is important because chances are that your teachers will ask very similar questions.

Now the studying can begin! I suggest that you start studying the topics that you know the best first, because you won't have to spend a lot of time studying it. You should study the topics that you have a hard time with last so that the information is fresh in your mind. The chances of you remembering the topics you know best for a long period of time are better than remembering a topic you struggle with for a long period of time.

After finishing studying a particular topic, close your book! Whether you're alone or with a friend, try reciting everything you studied. The best test to see if know something well is to teach it to a friend. If you can make them understand the topic, then you definitely know the material well. As you move from topic to topic, when you go back and review, don't just review that topic you just studied but all of the previous topics you studied. (For example, if you just finished studying Topic 3, don't just recite Topic 3, but Topic 3, Topic 2, Topic 1) A lot of times if you don't do this, you'll end up forgetting the information you studied first and this is when studying becomes very inefficient.

When you are done studying all of the topics, retake all of the tests! Make sure to fix all of the problems you got wrong, because REMEMBER, teachers usually reiterate the questions from the tests on the exam. If you have problems understanding a concept or keep getting things mixed up, GOOGLE IT! There are plenty of materials online to help clarify concepts. Especially when it comes to scientific processes (for example, the electron transport chain), videos can help! I remember studying for my biology exam this past semester. Videos are a short, easy way to memorize a topic!!!

The day of the exam, DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AT YOUR NOTES! A lot of times this can completely mess up your zen state of mind. Just be calm and walk in their with confidence. If you followed all of the steps above and thoroughly studied the exam topics, then there is no reason for you not to succeed!