Yes, the best time of year for us students is already on the horizon — summer vacation is coming fast. Of course, being juniors, nothing is easy for us; summer vacation just can’t be quite the same three months of relaxation and fun it used to be. So what am I personally planning on doing? I’ve mentioned a few things that I need to finally get around to doing over the summer, but here is the list in full.

Visiting colleges. Yes, we all know it’s important, and I need to get right on it. And while I can’t venture very far away from the Northeast, where I live, there are a fair number of colleges nearby that I’m very interested in. My plan is to spend a weekend in each of the major cities around here, looking at colleges and just getting a feel for life in that area. One weekend in Philadelphia, one in Boston, one in New York City, and so on. That will get me some good visits with many of the places I’m looking at. And plus, there’s nothing wrong with travel — going out of town for a few weekends will be enjoyable in itself.

Volunteering. If there is one area I should think about shoring up, I would have to say community service. Certainly I’m eager to give back to the community I’ve been a part of for all of these years, but unfortunately time has been the biggest limiting factor in the past school year. So what better season to catch up than over the summer? Already I’ve found a few promising service opportunities, ones that will be valuable and fulfilling experiences.

Those pesky college applications . . . Yes, it’s time to start thinking about those. I’ve already begun looking at the application process for my preferred colleges, but right around August is the time when I plan to start putting serious work into the applications. By then I’ll have hopefully visited many of them and decided which ones are right for me, so it’s better to get a start before school starts up again (a scary thought, that). Application essay writing, in particular, requires quite a bit of thought in order to get just the right tone, the right feel, the right image of who you are, all wrapped up in those few thousand words. So if I can at lease have some sort of plan on what I will write for each prompt, then I’ll be saving myself a lot of trouble down the road.

And on the side, a little leisure. Reading, practicing trumpet, gaming, and what have you. Work might be there, but summer is still summer; we’d be wrong if we didn’t spend at least a little extra time relaxing. Not overly much — after all, college is key to most of our foreseeable future — but a little extra time to take a break. After the hectic school year, we all deserve it.

At some point in all our high school careers, it will come time to … take “the Test.” The Test can be anything, standardized or otherwise, but it’s important that we do well on it, no matter what. And to do this, it’s important to know just how to take the Test — because like one of those repeating dreams, the Test will come back to us again and again over time.

Even though the Test officially begins only once the proctor gives the signal to begin, the process of taking the Test really begins with preparation. Studying has to happen first, for sure, because if one wants to succeed on the Test, one has to know the material. But scholarly preparation aside, mental preparation is just as important.

The Test is critical, as we all know, and it’s only natural that it occupies a section of our mind in the weeks leading up to it. But we shouldn’t allow it to take up all of our thoughts — and above all, we shouldn’t let it stress us out completely. Stress is good in moderation, one of the few motivating factors that can pull us away from our technological distractions. But too much of it is just as bad — when we start losing sleep over the Test, things begin to go downhill.

So I’ve found that the day before the Test is critical for this reason. If we’re completely stressed out the day before, then that’ll carry over to the morning of and continue right up until we walk into that testing room. And soon enough we’ll be more concerned with worrying about how we’re going to do on the Test than with answering the questions themselves, which would actually raise our scores. So here are a few things to do, to get the nerves under control.

Recall that you are actually well prepared for the Test. All that work and studying you’ve put in certainly hasn’t been for nothing — think of all that you know, that you didn’t know before. Dismiss that nagging thought that you haven’t learned “enough” for certainly one can never say that they’ve learned “enough” — but be confident that you are perfectly capable of attaining a strong score with what you’ve already learned.

Along the same lines, recall that more often than not, you are doing better than you think you are. There might be a streak of a few questions that you don’t know the answer to — but don’t forget the numerous questions that you did know the answer to before that, and those that are still to come. Many a test I have walked out of feeling that it went terribly, but in the end, it all turned out fine.

Finally, remember that the Test is, when it comes down to it, just a piece of paper. The Test doesn’t control you; you can control the Test. From the moment you sit down at that desk or table, you are in control, and nothing can faze you. More often, it’ll turn out to be easier than you thought; but if it turns out to be harder, know that everyone else is taking the same test, and many others are feeling just the same way. And if you’ve prepared well, and your stress is under control, then you’ll have put forth your best effort, and there will be nothing further to worry about.

I must admit a secret: I haven’t gone on any college visits yet. Because important as they are, I simply haven’t had time enough to go anywhere, especially since things have been piling up around this time of year. (And it doesn’t help that the colleges I’m most interested in are quite a long way away…)

It’s almost a cardinal sin by this time of year — I really should have already seen at least some of the ones I’m most interested in, and begun deciding which ones suit me best. And though it’s the truth, mounting schoolwork ends up being an ironic excuse. But that’s just the way things have fallen this year, and I’ll definitely be turning my attention to these things in the next couple months, when things begin to unwind at the end of the year.

Why exactly is it important, though? Well, it’s a great chance — practically the only chance, really — to get a picture of the college’s atmosphere, from the size and look of the campus to the friendliness of the people there. Numbers are great and easy to get to — acceptance rates, average scores of those accepted, and all — but they don’t really tell us about what it’s like to be a student there and whether we’d enjoy it or not. For that, we have to be right on-site, taking it all in ourselves.

That’s what the visiting process is all about and many colleges have guided tours to make it all the easier. We might find that, yes, this college is all that we thought it was, the mood is great, the people are friendly — or we might find that, maybe the aesthetics aren’t all we thought, or that the staff aren’t as welcoming as we’d have liked. But either way, we have a better idea of whether we want to apply, and in general, what we most prefer from a college.

It’s also the one chance to meet directly with the admissions office and simply introduce yourself to them. An outstanding performance in high school is one thing, but it is just as important to show the college that, yes, you are interested in going there! If the college is certain that they are your dream school, and that if accepted you will definitely go there, then that will certainly give some more weight to your application. Plus, it helps set you more at ease about the whole applications process if you know that the person reading it on the other end is indeed a friendly, likeable person and that they’re not in fact eager to stamp “rejection” on your application. If you’re stressed about writing something, then it’ll definitely show through somewhere — better to have a relaxed, focused mind and be able to give it your best.

Of course, it might be odd that I’m talking about how important this is when I, myself, have been dropping the ball a bit on the whole thing — but make no mistake, it’s definitely an important element of the college process. And I, for one, definitely plan to fix my current situation within the next months.

This past weekend I competed at NYSML, the New York State Mathematics League. We assembled a team of students from different schools in our county who were top performers at local math competitions and went to compete with other teams from across the state. Of course, the academic experience itself was valuable — there were some truly mind-bending problems asked, requiring deep thought. Although our overall team performance ended up being delightfully average, and no one received any awards in particular, we still put on a decent showing. But beyond the academics, it was a very valuable experience for me, as it was an opportunity to meet many new people.

We see the same people who go to our schools every day; we’ve gone through the grades with them, and we know our inner circle of friends like the back of our hands. However, not very often do we get a chance to mingle with people from other schools (as often as we might come face to face with them during sporting events). Opportunities such as combined-school or county-wide teams, or other gatherings, are a rich opportunity to make new friends. And so, over the weekend, during the rather lengthy event, I was able to meet some very interesting people from neighboring schools. I discovered engaging personalities, with coinciding interests —people whom I might never have met, had I simply kept within my own school’s community.

Indeed, simply going to such events and meeting people, if possible, is a great way to pass time. For one thing, the ability to get along well with people is an incredibly valuable skill throughout all of life — it pays to be nice, as they say — and there’s no better way to develop that skill than to just go out and meet people. Plus, it’s a great way to broaden your view of the world. Different people have different views of things, ones that you might not have thought of yourself, but that still pique your interest. No one is alike; everyone has something interesting to say and a different story to share.

And it is, after all, a small world. You never know if, sometime in the future, you might run into someone you met long ago. And it might not even be up to chance anymore — with social networking sites and other Internet communication, it’s easier than ever to stay in touch with people.

So, the friends we make now will stick with us for life, whether directly by keeping in touch, or indirectly by leaving some lasting impression on us. Someone’s different perspective might completely change our point of view — hey; it only sounds far-fetched until it actually happens.

And we’ll always be making new friends in life. Most of us will be going to a college where we don’t know any of the other students — a place where making new friends is not only essential, but easier than ever. It’s the place to make a first impression on everybody, and if we reach out kindly then we’ll be sure to make good friends. Plus, being able to communicate and get along well with others is a valuable skill all over, in colleges, jobs, and beyond.

This year in particular, I’ve been making an effort to reach out to people. I’m taking part in more activities outside of schools, with people from all over, and I’ve been trying to get to know people there. It’s all too easy to sit in silence next to someone you don’t know, but that ends up not being an especially great experience. Striking up a little conversation can be, perhaps, “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Recently I missed a deadline, an important deadline. It was the deadline for honors society applications, due at exactly 3:00 p.m. last Monday. I had the application and paperwork all ready; my error was that I forgot to turn it in before 3:00, and arrived at 4:00, which was, of course, too late. Well, time waits for no one, as they say.

To put it bluntly, it was a huge disappointment and shock for me, and one that continued to echo. Over the course of the next week, starting from that missed deadline, things continued to pile up; a biology test, followed by another biology test — that one a take-home test that consumed most of the evening. I also have to read a 600-page book by the end of the week (tomorrow!), which, at the time of this writing, I am only halfway finished with. And, well, just for good measure, I missed another deadline, this one in my U.S. history class, for a paragraph which had been assigned for more than a week but had completely fallen through the cracks.

Now, I have been told that I am a responsible student (and I’m sure that my friends would revolt if I attempted to say otherwise), but I am now finding this hard to believe looking at the past week. Today, my goal in school was simply to get through the day without any more major gaffes. I succeeded, but it was little consolation.

So currently I’m in the process of cheering myself up, as the week isn’t over yet (though that idea seems unimaginable to me). And to this end, there are a few things that I find helpful to remember and repeat:

• You’re not alone. Friends are always there to be supportive during your downswings, and they always have a few kind words to say.
• Everyone makes mistakes. Especially when we have as much being thrown at us at one time as we do, it’s inevitable that something will eventually fall through when we’re not watching. That doesn’t mean we’re irresponsible people; it only means that we’re human. That one mistake doesn’t reflect as poorly as you might think.
• There’s always a way out. My teacher was kind enough to allow me one extra day to complete that paragraph (which I now have) with only a small deduction. I also have an opportunity to reapply to the honor society this fall. Of course it doesn’t totally erase the disappointment of the present, but it does prove that we never truly reach a dead end.
• Dwelling on something for too long will only drag it out longer. That’s not to say, don’t reflect; that’s an essential element to the whole lifelong learning process. Moods tend to snowball; I was in a poor mood at the beginning of the week, and I only found myself less prepared for the workload for the rest of that week. I’ve decided, just like I said before, that the past is past, and once we’ve learned our lessons, it’s time to move on.
• It helps to take your mind completely off the stress, at least briefly. This afternoon, I’ve been alternating between doing schoolwork — something that I must do, of course — and writing a few snippets of fiction — something that I enjoy doing and that relaxes me.
• Life works in cycles. We will always have our ups and downs; it’s important to relish those ups, and not to let the downs get us too much. Just remember that things don’t stay gloomy forever. Soon enough, things will be on the upswing again.

At the very beginning of the year, I resolved to keep a positive outlook; it was exactly situations like these I had in mind when making that resolution. We can’t be perfect, maybe, but we’re all good students; our occasional mistakes don’t change that fact.

As for me … well, it’s back to my book. A good night’s sleep can always wait for Friday.

Recently in my biology class, we filled out a class survey where we evaluated the workload of the course in comparison to other courses; we also included our comments. One section involved describing what percentage of our time spent doing homework went toward each individual course. In filling out the survey, I realized that my time spent on each course per night was very uneven; three courses alone took up about 80% of my time.

This is normal, of course; it’s only natural that certain courses require more homework or more studying than others, because of their difficulty. But it did get me thinking about something very important: priorities. Effective prioritizing has been a huge tool for me this year, even if I hadn’t realized it until now.

Assignments crop up all at once, but often times they aren’t all due at once; due dates are usually spread out, with some long-term and others due the very next class. So, naturally, we work on the more urgent assignments first, and put off the longer ones until a more convenient date. This is prioritizing at its most basic, and everyone does this, unconsciously or not.

It’s important, though, to look at things with a longer view. If there’s an important assignment due the next day, then we should work on that, certainly. But we need to keep those longer-term assignments in our minds earlier than the few days before they’re due. If, the following day, we have a little less work, then it’s a good time to tackle longer projects. We might lose out on leisure time now, but it will save us much pain in the future.

This strategy applies to much more than schoolwork, too. Consider college applications — it’s been said by some of my teachers that for the first half of senior year, seniors have an additional course: applications. Some are due early, some later; it’s all about prioritizing — firstly, which ones are due sooner, to avoid the dreaded last-minute crunch, and then which ones are most important to you, so you have time to refine those. And onward in life, priorities are, well, a priority, whether it comes to job applications, term papers, or anything else.

Good time management has been what’s gotten me through the past two weeks. I was in the pit orchestra for our school’s musical production, which meant rehearsals until 9 every night —which in turn meant not much time to work on homework or anything else. It happened that there were projects in a few of my classes, plus normal day-to-day assignments. Instead of just doing my daily load and going to bed — as I would have liked to do — I stayed up a little later each night to whittle away at the longer-term projects. Now, the week after the musical, I’m in the process of catching up on anything I might have fallen behind on, but it’s much less stressful than it would have been if I’d pushed everything off each night.

So, it seems to be a pain at the time, but in the end, thinking ahead in this way can save us a lot of stress.

Success is certainly something that we all strive for, something that we hope to achieve as often as we can. The glory of being accepted into that one college or program, or leading your sports team to victory, or anything like that is definitely a great feeling. But we can’t win them all, as they say, and sooner or later we all have to face defeat.

Recently, for instance, I achieved a score on a test that was not bad, so to speak, but not especially spectacular, and certainly not what I’d hoped for. This was a test that I’d been preparing for as best I could, and I was disappointed when I learned about the result. It wasn’t exactly a dark, soul-crushing disappointment, but it was a disappointment all the same.

What to do in cases like this? It’s inevitable that we will feel disappointed and upset after a let-down, and there’s no sense in trying to bottle those feelings up. But it’s important to reflect, instead of just being dejected. If we figure out just what we did wrong and what we need to improve on, then we can avoid those same mistakes in the future. It’s a common lesson, but we often forget about it when something especially frustrating happens.

In small incidents, it’s pretty easy to shrug it off and decide we’ll do better next time; sometimes, though, something major just goes wrong, and we’re left feeling at a dead end. Maybe we didn’t get accepted into the program or the college that we were depending on getting into. As frustrating as it may be, it’s important not to give up; there’s always a way to turn things around, and all we need to do is find it.
And in the end, it’s important just to take a deep breath and remember that things are never perfect; it’s just life, that we won’t win every time. The world will not end; life will go on, and things won’t turn out so bad after all. Missing that one opportunity, be it a college, a team, or a job, is a setback; we just have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and keep moving on. Our second-choice college may have been second-choice, but we can always distinguish ourselves there. And it might even work out better that we aren’t accepted to our first choice schools. The admission officers might see something that tells them a student wouldn’t be happy or do very well there.

So in my case, the test was a disappointment, but since I received the test back, I was able to figure out just what sections I needed to review, and I will be all the more prepared next time. After all, if we’re given a test or a score report back, there’s no reason not to use it to our advantage by finding out just what to put our effort towards. Once we’ve shored those up, we’ll be in a much better position for the future. This applies to everything — from school tests, to the ACT, and beyond.

Above all, I reasoned that what’s done is done, and there’s no sense in worrying about the score that was already given. Instead, I will try to fix it by working to do better. We can’t change the past, but we can change the future.

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~Thomas Edison.

There are just over 10 weeks until the first of May and I’m already nervous. The reason why I’m counting down to May instead of the end of the school year in June is because, this year, May is an extremely important month for me — it’s the end of these long months of test preparation, with exams and college admission exam dates such as the ACT all falling during this part of the year.

In all my classes, the workload is picking up faster than any time in the year, especially in my advanced classes. On top of that, my activities outside of school are also beginning to pick up. I’m in the pit orchestra for our school musical, for instance, which means that I’ll be at rehearsals every day until 8 or 9 p.m., beginning two weeks from now.

Really, we high school students do it all — much more so than people might expect. And why? Well, because of passion: we do these activities because we are passionate about them. We join sports teams because we’re passionate about playing the sport, we participate in the musical because we love music and the arts, and — though it seems to be the opposite, sometimes — we take difficult courses because we’re passionate about learning. We tackle that workload every day, prepare for those tests, because we want to show that we want to learn, and that we won’t give up easily.
And passion is so important — it keeps us going from day to day, because even though we might be up late trying not to fall behind in work, we love what we do. And it helps us, too. Colleges love to see students intensely devoting their time to their passion. (It makes for a great application essay subject, so I’ve heard.)

So for all of you doing what you love — sports, art, music, academics, anything at all — don’t lose sight of that fact. There’s definitely an intense time commitment in taking on so many things at once, and sometimes it might feel like you can’t handle it all. At these times, just remember why you’re doing all this — because you’re passionate about it. Even if it’s hard to believe at times, if we weren’t passionate about the things we do, we’d have burned out long ago and stopped trying. And this is especially true for everyone loading up with classes and college entrance exams. We’ve made it more than half the year already; our commitment to taking these tests shows that we’re devoted to learning and challenging ourselves.

Everyone has a passion. Some have more, and they might be very different ones, but everyone has one; we just need to find it. And once we’ve found it, the path that we want to take through life will begin to clear up.

It happens every so often: things are all business as usual, homework is steady but bearable, life is normal. And we begin to think, well, maybe things aren’t so bad, right? And then, we hit a brick wall. Tests from multiple classes all crop up in the same week, maybe with a massive project due around the same time, not to mention all the extracurricular activities we take part in. Suddenly, bedtime gets pushed into the wee hours of the morning, and just the thought of going back to school the next day seems impossible.

That’s just about what happened to me this past week — tests from multiple classes falling on the same Friday, band and musical activities taking up hours over the weekend, and a major research paper due the next Monday. Not to mention the four essays due the same Monday for an application to a program I’m hoping to attend over the summer. And that Monday just happened to be … today.

So, I did feel like I was about to be flattened. The essays, in particular, seemed to be the most stubborn of the lot. I’d been plugging away at them for a good couple weeks now, but with my other activities, reviewing for those tests, and the writing process itself (thinking of ideas, writing drafts, and then discarding most of them), progress seemed to be terribly slow.

Finally, the day before those tests, I made an effort to get things in order. First, I took a deep breath and put everything aside for a few minutes, just to calm down and think clearly. Next, I devoted a few hours to getting that research paper as perfect as I could make it. After I was satisfied with that, I looked over my notes for a few more hours, and got the few hours of sleep that I needed to power through the next day.

I designated that weekend as an essay-writing marathon, beginning Friday afternoon and ending Sunday night. Starting with simply slapping ideas down on paper (or, in this case, on keyboard), I steadily molded those ideas into workable essays, one by one, through the course of Friday night and Saturday afternoon. The essays gradually moved from workable to satisfactory, and from that to something I considered “good” by Sunday morning. By that night, I concluded that I’d put all that I could into those essays.

Clicking “submit” on the assignment interface for my research paper, followed by clicking “submit” for the online application form, was an incredible relief. Knowing that I’d managed to not only survive, but give my top effort to all the things being thrown at me, and, more importantly, that it was over for the time being, was a freeing sensation, a great weight off the shoulders. In the end, writing those essays was a productive experience.

Stressful moments like these happen to all of us; it’s important to keep in mind that with a cool head and a good plan, we can definitely get through it all. We should remember that all the stress will make that final release feel all the more satisfying in comparison. Now, excuse me, please; I’m off to get a proper night’s sleep.

It’s a new year, and for many, that means making resolutions. Whether it be to work harder, or organize better, or perhaps the ubiquitous weight-loss resolution, almost everyone has something different they want to aspire to this New Year. I’m no exception — but my resolution has more to do with thinking than with doing. And . . . here it is: think positively. Not just an effort to break the “whiny teenager” mold, though I admit, that’s something that I strive to avoid (with varying degrees of success, depending on whom you ask).

A little about me — I’m Chris Yu, a junior at Jamesville-DeWitt High School in Syracuse, New York. Outside of keeping up with school and extra-curriculars, and just generally staying afloat, I spend most of my time on music, playing the trumpet.

Here, in the middle of junior year, is when I feel the training wheels come off. From here on, I’ll be able to see the shadows of colleges, just over the horizon. Scholarships will start floating by, and I’ll have to put in the work to grab them. And then, next September, it’s over the proverbial waterfall. Things are already picking up — application deadlines for junior year summer camps are rolling around, and the essay-writing perseverance they require is just a window into college applications next fall (If people want to know where the “whiny teenager” state comes from, they need look no further than junior and senior year).

So, the positive outlook definitely is important. Maybe the added stress will be a sign that things are going well — lots of options to pursue, after all (See, I’m working on the outlook already). And, well, maybe I’m not looking forward to it, but it’s something that everyone needs to get through.

Luckily, there’s still some time to get ready. Right now, I’m just a junior with his mind set on other things than colleges — really, I’ve hardly begun thinking about them right now. With schoolwork, music, and other extra-curriculars already part of this balancing act, the transition to thinking seriously about college will be something for me to watch. Even taking the ACT: though I definitely knew it was a great investment for college and beyond, I also thought of it as something to gauge myself on — a proving ground, so to speak. In preparing, I needed to show myself that I was ready to put in the work necessary for the years to come.

And so I think I’m ready for the work, but I still must figure out where that work should be directed. I’ve still only a vague idea of what I want to pursue in college, and it’s high time that I worked that out. So I’m glad that it’s still January; there are still a few months to set my goals in order. Make no mistake, though; a few months can seem like a long time, but it can also pass before we know it, leaving us with only days before a certain deadline — an experience that most of us have had.

But, I must (reluctantly) admit, I never put in much hard work throughout middle school. I just felt that nothing was challenging enough back then to warrant the work that, to the past “me’s” chagrin, I now find myself putting in most every day in high school. So, I wasn’t exactly off to a good start; it’s an all-too-common story, like someone who excels in middle school but falls from the top in high school because of their lack of motivation.

Then, something happened. I went to a certain camp called CTY (Center for Talented Youth), essentially a college environment for three weeks, living on campus and attending very advanced classes. There, though I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, one thing that struck me was that I wasn’t the smartest person in the room, by far. It didn’t seem like much at the time, but looking back, I realized that there was always someone better than me out there. It would no longer be enough to just cruise through classes; that would lead to trouble. I had to strive to match that person, somewhere out there.

So then came high school, and I found that I was well prepared to meet its demands. Soon, another jump from high school to college will occur, and it’ll again be important to recognize the importance of effort. Not all work, all day, certainly. I leave what time I can to relax from the demands of the day, whether it be through games, or reading, or just talking. But I’ve learned that when the time comes, the effort makes all the difference. In the coming months, there’ll definitely be times when I feel swamped with all the things to balance, but, well, if other people have gotten through it, then so can I.

Maintaining a positive outlook — that’s definitely a resolution for me to keep, not just in the new year, but in the new decade.