Back to School Series Pt 3 | How to Survive High School Guide!

Hey everyone! This last week was my first week (Wed-Friday) as a sophomore at my new school Oaks Christian. I had a really great week and am feeling super positive and optimistic about this school year and all that the school has to offer. So, I decided I would do a 'guide' / a bunch of tips on how to survive high school - and not only survive it but make it the best years of your life. High school gets a bad rap for being the worst years ever so why not make it great and take advantage of all that school provides you with. Do you want to have the best high school years ever? Then, continue reading to find out how!

Be organized
I think being organized in school and at home is one of the most important steps to making your high school years less stressful. If you're disorganized, you'll lose track of papers, assignments and end up way more stressed than you should be.

First, get a planner or an app on your phone (i.e Homework App) where you can record all your work, tests and assignments. This will be a lifesaver because no one can remember all the homework each teacher told them about, so ultimately you'll forget and the next day will be in a world of trouble with twice as much work to do the following night. Also, use COLORS, colors are essential when it comes to keeping my notes organized because I can never study off of notes written in pencil -it gets me confused and bored.

Another thing you can do to stay more organized is to buy small binders for each class and then get dividers to put inside the binders. Label each divider with a subsection to that subject and then place all your handouts and notes into your dedicated binder. Lastly, make use of your locker! I went in to this school year thinking I would never use my locker, but then I felt how heavy all my textbooks are and decided my locker is going to be very useful.

Get Involved
The next tip is to get involved in sports teams, clubs, events, dances, etc. All of these activities are a great way for you to meet people (if you are new) or get to know people that aren't inside of your friend group. They also add an extra layer to high school - gets you active, lets you compete, bond with your teammates and enjoy school life. Coming home and doing homework or studying everyday would be so boring and make every day drag by; which is why I try to get involved with school life as much as possible by attending all dances, events, football games and joining sports or clubs. For instance, I am on the dance team at school so we perform at all the football games during halftime and it also means that I meet a bunch of people before starting school.

Have School Spirit
At my school we are known for our school spirit and everyone goes all out on all the spirit days, homecoming week and basically throughout the school year. If you have no school spirit then all the fun football games and spirit days will make you feel annoyed rather than participating in them and having a great time. Having spirit will also make you more approachable to people and show that you aren't afraid to wear something crazy or make a fool of yourself because after all everyone is during spirit days!

Don't Overwhelm Yourself with Work
School = work and work and work. However, you can limit yourself to less work by not overwhelming yourself with too many classes. This may not be true for everyone's school schedule but for my school and many other schools in America, you get to select your classes. Now, you still have to meet all the necessary requirements to graduate in four years but through this system it helps to limit your classes. For instance, it is nice to push yourself by taking AP classes but instead of trying to take three or four in a year take two and that way you can just focus on those.

Also this year I have several free periods and study halls during the week. During these free periods or homework periods I can catch up on homework and then I have less to do when I get home from sport. Take advantage of these periods (if you have them) because it will make a huge difference in the amount of work you have at home.

Stay Positive
Lastly, stay positive and happy! No one likes to be around someone who is negative all the time and views school in only a pessimistic way. Be open and positive to trying new things, meeting new people, studying hard and enjoying high school. You will never be able to have four amazing high school years if you aren't positive and happy.

I hope you enjoyed the third part to my back to school series! Remember if you want to not only survive high school, but make it the best four years of your life: be organized, get involved, have school spirit, don't overwhelm yourself with work/classes, and stay positive! Till next time xx

Back to School Series Pt 2 | 5 min Total Body Fitness Circuit!

Hey everyone! Today I will be sharing with you a quick back to school fitness routine. Now that summer is nearly over, we will have half the amount of time to workout and keep up our fitness. That's why I have put together a super quick 5 minute circuit that you can squeeze in to any day. It's five minutes so you have no excuses as to why you didn't have enough time to finish it!

There are 5 exercises total and each move should be done for 1 minute. In between each exercise you can take a 30 second rest to prepare for the following move. Since each exercise is only for a minute you should be trying to get in as many reps as you can to make the most of that minute.

If you are feeling great afterwards, challenge yourself to another couple of rounds to create a longer workout if you aren't also involved in extra sports and activities.

5 moves, 1 minute each...are YOU ready? 

First round - Side Hops

Jump as high and far out to the side as you can with your legs tucked in to your chest. No breaks during the whole minute just hop as hard as you can! 

Second Round - Bicycle Crunches

Laying on your back with your legs straight out in front of you and hands behind your head. Bring one knee to your chest whilst simultaneously crunching the opposite side of your body to your knee.  

Third Round - Single Leg Butt Kicks

On your hands and knees lift one leg up and kick up and down for 30 seconds (keeping your knee bent), then switch onto the other leg to complete the minute of exercise. 

Fourth Round - Inner Thigh Pulses

Laying on your side, bring one leg across the other and near chest at a bent angle. Next, flex the bottom foot and pulse up and down for 30 seconds switching onto the other side for the last 30 seconds. 

Fifth Round - Downward Dog Push-ups

Starting in a downward dog position, slowly drop your body down towards the ground and bring one leg at a time to your chest. Then, do a tricep push-up down to the floor. From there lift up your hips slightly off the ground and push your upper body up to the sky with an arched back. Finally, bring your hips back up to downward dog. 

Thanks so much for reading through and completing this fitness circuit! I hope you are sweating and on the floor and if not DO IT AGAIN! I also just wanted to recommend a great youtube channel that you can go to if you want more interval style fitness routines. The channel is "blogilates" and most of my fitness inspiration comes from her videos as she has millions of videos perfect for every part of your body. In addition, I am starting school on Wednesday so I will probably only have time for once a week posting just to let you know. With that said, thanks again for viewing my blog and I'll talk to you soon xx

PS...
Top: Nike
Shorts and Sports Bra: H&M

Back to School Series Pt 1 | School Supplies & DIY!

Hey everyone! So I start school in 6 DAYS...and I know some of you have already started or may be starting in a week so I figured it was the perfect time to start my back to school series! Basically, it will be a collection of various posts all about school and how to make transitioning into a new grade or school easier.

Ahh I still can't believe summer is almost over it has gone by way too fast like it always does. Anyways, in today's first part of the series I will be sharing with you my school supplies / backpack / s couple DIY's for your supplies.

School Supply Haul
Everything was purchased from Target except for the 'emergency kit' which was bought at Urban Outfitters.

School planner

Emergency kit filled with 22 random items (i.e rubber band, deodorant, tide stick, lip balm, etc)

Backpack
My backpack is from the brand Fjäll Räven which you can find at Nordstrom's or online. It is in the color graphite which is basically a dark gray with blue tones. I love this backpack because it has an extra 13" compartment to store your backpack. This is so ideal because you have extra room for all your books and don't have to take up space in the main compartment for your laptop. It's also really comfortable on your arms and holds a lot of things.

Laptop compartment

DIY's
School supplies can be a really boring thing if you get basic stuff that everyone has. Instead, you can use these three super easy DIY's to add some personality to your items and keep you more organized.

The first are dividers to go into your binders. If you're like me, I get so confused with all my papers and sometimes just end up throwing them somewhere. Therefore, I decided to get white dividers with colorful tabs. Then, I took these white strips and wrote the class name AND room number and placed them inside the tabs. Now, I can easily flip to the correct class when I'm in a hurry and need to shove a paper into my binder. You can also tape your schedule to the back of your binder to keep track of your classes.

Next, I have this 5 part notebook which is super helpful because I can have all my classes inside of one notebook filled with tons of lined paper so I don't have to carry around a separate notebook for each class. It also came with a page of cut-outs to write the class and teacher but you can also make your own. I cut out each of the boxes, filled them in and taped them to the start of each section. 

This could also work in a normal notebook in which you tape in titles to keep each section of the class organized. Ex: In your biology notebook you could split the notebook so one section is for classwork, one for homework and one for test prep. 

Next, is a DIY to jazz up your binders or notebooks with washi tape! I love washi tape and I'm so happy I can finally use it because they didn't have any in Switzerland :( Anyways, this is a pretty self-explanatory DIY where you take different rolls of tape and add a design to the corners or all over the surface. I bought a white binder and added some tape to the bottom to keep it simple with a pop of color. 

Finally, this is more of a tip than a DIY but it's to screenshot your schedule and set it as your lock screen for the first couple weeks of school. I've seen this on so many back to school tips and think it will be super helpful rather than searching for your schedule in your bag or going through your phone to find it. 

I hope you all enjoyed this first part of the back to school series and that it gave you some ideas of what to buy and also some easy DIY's you can do to add a touch of personality and organization to your supplies. Till next time xx