I’ve found studying to be more fun when I include bits of “me”: a space that felt right, a session of learning with the help of my favorite playlists, a Pomodoro video to study along to, and a “high-five” from a small reward. Rather than feeling like something I’m supposed to do, studying feels more like something I want to do. And I’ve boiled it down to 4 simple tips.

PERSONALIZATION

Let’s start with the area where you study. Having a study space that you love, whether it’s simple or decorated with many personalized touches, will make it easier to sit down and get started. Decorate as much or little as you like, but it might be helpful to keep the items you need, such as books and pencils, within your reach.

Try to incorporate your favorite things. This can be as simple as stationery with your favorite colors. Or, if you’re a music lover, you could find or create a playlist specifically for your study sessions.

Gamify it! You can do this in multiple ways. One way is to create “rewards” for how much work you complete (or, if you prefer, the amount of studying you get done). For example, if you’ve successfully done everything on your to-do list for the day or week, reward yourself with an item off your wish list, a movie you want to watch, or anything else you’d like.

Lastly, you may or not be familiar with “Study with Me” videos. These videos can be helpful for staying focused and motivated. If you can, you can also study with a friend, group, or loved one in person.

Regardless of what approach you choose to take, remember to experiment. With a bit of creativity and exploring, you’ll ultimately find a study routine that’s uniquely yours.

Sincerely, Wordynora.

My school will be out for a few days next week, so I’ve been spending some time planning out my mission for those days. But without the slight structure given to us by a school, there are so many possibilities in terms of things you can do. For someone like me, that can be both a wonderful and a dreadful thing. Listing it all out tends to help a lot. And if you aren’t on a break at the moment? Planning ahead of time is equally helpful.

PLANNING IT ALL OUT

I like to begin by asking myself: “Do I want to exercise or relax my brain?”

If you are burned out and need to spend some time relaxing and re-charging, focus on self-care and hobbies. Self-care can mean many things depending on who you ask. You could tidy up your room, read a book, or snuggle with a pet—but you should always aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep, drink enough water, and do a bit of exercise (stretching counts too). If you can, enjoy one of your hobbies with a friend or a family member (or do something else enjoyable, like bake together or watch a movie).

Maybe you want to get ahead or back on track in school. If that is the situation, then spend your break doing a bit of homework, studying, and reviewing. Remember to take frequent breaks so you don’t get too tired—your goal is to study smart. Work on a few math problems, analyze a text, then take a 5-to-30-minute break after a certain amount of time. The length of your break should increase with the time you spend working and studying!

Nothing is always simply 1 and 2. There is always an in-between, and, in this case, that is your extracurricular activities. During your break, you will have more time to focus on those extracurriculars or get involved in more. However, no activity is exactly alike, and some might not even be active during breaks. For example, my school’s clubs do not have meetings during our breaks.

PRIORITIZE YOURSELF

Regardless of how you choose to spend your break, make sure you are happy! You can always do all three: spend some time studying, focus more on your extracurricular activities, and relax with your family. The important thing is to have a balance and, of course, take care of yourself!

Sincerely, Wordynora.

The holiday season is over—it’s now a new year. At the start of each year, we often think of our dreams, wishes, and goals—the life and person we wish to have and be. Setting goals is great for your productivity and future, but that’s if you do it smartly! A cycle of setting goals and not completing them can drop you down into a deep hole of negativity.

To protect our motivation, energy, and happiness, let’s set goals for ourselves that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

A PATH TO YOUR DREAMS

Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant (though this is sometimes replaced with “realistic”), and time-bound (or “timely”) creates the word SMART. I learned about this last year from my 9th grade career teacher, and it's been really helpful. It is essentially “rules” that help you set goals:

Your goals should be specific. This is the difference between saying “I want to study more” and “I want to study at least 1 hour each day during this month.”

They should also be measurable, so you can track how close or behind you are to achieving them. If one of your goals is to study more, you should be able to track how long and often you study.

Any goal you set must be achievable. If it’s unrealistic, you’re only walking towards disappointment. Aiming too high and landing nowhere near where you wanted to will only dishearten you. Ask yourself, “Is this possible for me to achieve if I work hard enough?”

Along with the above three, make sure your goals are also relevant to you. If an artist’s eye is more on their art, it might be best for them to set a goal in that area.

Finally, your goals should be time-bound. Have a planned time (such as a day, month, or year) by which you should complete your goals. For example: “I want to have a habit of studying math at least 1 hour a day by the end of my school’s spring semester.”

Think about what you want to achieve this year. One of my goals this year is to become an intermediate guitarist. Dream big and high, yet realistically! Work hard with dedication to achieve what you long for. And when you make goals, make smart (or SMART) goals. It’ll keep you on a path that will lead you to your dreams.

I wish you a happy 2023!

Sincerely, Wordynora.

It is extremely important to stay organized for so many things in life. Whether it’s school or a job, an organized life is a less stressful one—even if it’s just an inch less. You’ll manage your time better, and it’ll be easier to stay on top of everything (especially your assignments).

One way to manage your time is to create a schedule. Every day won’t be the same, and there will be times when you won’t be able to stick to it, but it’s helpful to have one. Calendars are also especially useful—I use two different calendars!

Create a to-do list and organize your priorities in order of importance. In your to-do list, include everything you need to do that day. Pick the things that will affect you and your life the most and place them at the top.

As for class notes, you can have separate notebooks for each course you are taking (though this might be expensive), use a binder and dividers, or use folders (either physical or digital).

Lastly, you can’t forget your surrounding space. Although every person is different, it’s often difficult to stay focused and concentrated when your surroundings aren’t tidy (that includes noise too). Have a designated, organized, and quiet place to work away!

Sincerely, Wordynora.

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart.

Imagine a young girl who preferred to blend in rather than stand out. She was too timid and too scared to do things that brought attention to her. The words she breathed merely existed to agree with others and nothing more. Soon, she grew up. Though she did not bother to change her ways, she smiled at life. However, regret soon caught up to her. She began to wish she did more. All of those missed opportunities—gone. Every night, she watched her memories play over and over in her head. She whispered to herself, “If I said this, I would have been better at this. If I had done this, I could have been one step closer to achieving my dreams. If only I was not so scared.” She knew it was still not too late and there was always time to work towards her dream, but fear controlled her.

Although I’m not sure how realistic it is, that is how I used to envision my future. The fear I had of embarrassing myself and being judged prevented me from doing so many things I dreamed of doing. And that fear is not gone. It is still here, eating me up—I can just manage it better. If you embrace challenges and take risks, your world will be more alive. Many people have left or are leaving positive changes in the world because they took risks.

SMALL STEPS TOWARD GROWTH

Develop a growth mindset. The way you think plays a huge role in the choices you make. Know that it is possible to improve or learn skills and abilities with dedication, effort, and time. Talent is not always something you are born with or naturally have.

Make mistakes. In school, we learn mistakes are bad. We are taught to do things correctly, step-by-step. We don’t like to get poor grades or bad feedback from our teachers—we don’t like to fail. But always remind yourself that mistakes are okay. Think of failure as a wobbling baby that will grow up into something larger and stronger: success. Failure is necessary—it’s the start of your journey. It tells you what you need to work on, need to do less of, and need to change. To this day, I am still struggling with this. I fail all the time. I repeatedly make mistakes, lose contests, and embarrass myself whenever I socialize. Sometimes, I become so frustrated with being me that I cry. But I know that failure is a part of growth.

The most important thing is to act. I like to take a deep breath, count to five, and just do it. More often than not, what you dread always ends up being better than you thought. And the benefits outweigh the negatives: better self-esteem, greater confidence, more opportunities, new skills, and a brighter version of yourself and your future. As my dad tells me, “Aim to be a better person each day.”

Sincerely, Wordynora.

Warm hot cocoa that melts the cold air from your numbed hands on a bitter night; watching the “Winter Break” episode of Craig of the Creek under a blanket (with heavy eyelids that are sluggishly fluttering with tiredness); dancing to classics as you nibble on a minty, red-and-white striped candy cane—those are the sweet, nostalgic memories that winter gave me.

GIFT-GIVING

There is less than a month left before winter starts in the Northern Hemisphere, and my heart is trying its absolute best to run toward December. I live in an area of the world where there is rarely snow, so I can count, with ten fingers, the number of times I’ve seen the fluffiness of solid, frozen water in person. Still, winter will always be my favorite season (with autumn following right behind it), and the winter that I’m used to is not that different from any other if you exclude snow. The coldness is still there. It never walks away. Nonetheless, I would love to experience a winter that lovingly gifts me snow each day until spring arrives.

Sincerely, Wordynora.

The sophomore slump is a decline in motivation during your sophomore year in high school. I’ll be honest—I did not know the sophomore slump was a real thing until I experienced it myself at the start of 10th grade. During my slump, I had no desire to do anything related to studying or my academics, and I was constantly tired. My ambition was gone. Each day after 2:30 PM, I fell down into my bed, and my head glued itself to my pillow. Luckily, that period of my life did not last long.

BREAKING THE CHAINS

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney.

Remind yourself that sophomore year is the time to prepare for your junior year. Take more challenging courses or electives. Doing so is not only beneficial for your future, but it will also drift boredom away from your mind. I often repeated to myself: “If I slack now, I will regret it next year.” Plan out your breaks too!

Involving yourself in more extracurricular activities is another amazing way to keep your mind engaged. I joined more clubs at my school, planned out volunteer activities, and deepened my connection with my hobbies.

Nothing lasts forever, including slumps of any kind—whether it’s a reading slump, writing slump, or sophomore slump.

Sincerely, Wordynora.

There used to be times where my main way of motivating myself to study was by watching other people study. I would study, work on my skills, and read for a few days. However, I was too tired to do anything when that motivation ended. This led to me procrastinating for weeks. Now I know the actual reason this happened: I lacked discipline.

DISCPLINE KEEPS YOU STEADY

I like to think of motivation and discipline as a sink. The faucet needs to be turned on first to make the water run, but the water can run all by itself afterwards. The faucet is motivation, and the water is discipline.

You will need discipline if you want to study daily. I did this by making studying a habit: I tried to do some type of studying each day, even when I was tired. To do this without a purpose is to kick yourself down a hole—you need a definite goal. I keep myself going by envisioning the future I want to have.

DON’T SACRIFICE YOUR FEELINGS

You’ll smile so wide you’ll have aching cheeks if you do the best you can, but you should never sacrifice your well-being for anything. And you should especially avoid doing so if you wish to perform your greatest. If you sacrifice your well-being, you are sacrificing quality. Take care of yourself! Sleep, eat, play, and do the best you can!

Sincerely, Wordynora.

“Technically, I’m not a guitar player, all I play is truth and emotion.”– Jimi Hendrix.

A BEST FRIEND

The light from my computer pierces my eyes at 9:04 PM. I open my eyes, and it’s now 9:06. During the two minutes that passed, I stepped away from my desk and danced with closed eyes. My small room was no limit—if a foot hit the edge of my bed, it danced along through vibrations.

I have held hands with music for many years. With every activity I take part in, there’s a song for it. As the tips of my fingers tap into the keys of my keyboard, my ears suck in the noise blasting through my headphones. I’m listening to “Matsuri” by Fujii Kaze, but there are other sings that’ll play after this one—for example, “Back Stabbers” by the O’Jays, “Pas de deux” from the Nutcracker, “and “Model Buses” by Lovejoy.

MUSIC CAN BE Y(OUR) SUN

Earlier this evening, I sat down in my bed, grabbed my phone, and read one or three articles on music. Music is simply a collection of sounds, yet it has such an enormous impact on us. An elegant amount of people love music—and any member of Gen Z knows that we adore it even—and you could say there’s a charming, straightforward reason for that: music releases dopamine. But there is much more going on. The amount of predictability in a song or piece is also important, and so are our experiences with music.

Something interesting I’ve learned is that our brains synch up together whenever we hear the same music. I wonder: does that play a role in the way music connects us? Certain songs and pieces trigger and remind us of specific memories—is that also part of the interlocking web of humans and music?

Regardless, music is one of the many things that gives me a reason to open my eyes when the sun taps on my window and waves its hands, smiling a wide “Hello.” It can be so complicated, and it can be as quiet as the water that drips from your faucet. It can be everything and almost nothing. I’m sure music will be with me for many years from now, especially now that I’ve picked up the guitar.

We should listen to more music. Better yet, play an instrument! Take out more time to appreciate the little things—that includes music.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130418-why-does-music-make-us-feel-good

https://www.scienceofpeople.com/benefits-music/

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/whywelove_music

Sincerely, Wordynora.

It was the start of the school year, and I had just finished reading Jack London’s White Fang. I remember this sentence from the book clearly:

“Fear urged him to go back, but growth drove him on.”

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A FOLLOWER

In 8th and 9th grade, I was a follower. An awkward, nervous follower who would sometimes go outside their comfort zone just to step quickly back inside it. However, I changed at the start of 10th grade. I was tired of my timidity—my timidity that causes my hands to shake, thumb to twitch, heart to beat against the left side of my chest. I wanted to be a leader; I wanted to grow—and so growth drove me on, just as it did with White Fang.

In the 2022-2023 school year, my school changed a bit. Teachers encouraged students to communicate with the microphone more often. We had to introduce ourselves to our new teachers and classmates. That was my first challenge. I was proud of myself whenever I ignored the racing of my heart and spoke, but I felt forced to speak. I went outside my comfort zone, but I was not growing because I kept going back to it. Fear was constantly urging me back. It was still attached to me. But there was a time when I chose to speak. It was during my art class, and it was the start of my journey.

OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE

On my wrist, my watch's alarm goes off—the alarm I had set that morning—warning me it was 11:15 AM. I sat at my desk, opened my laptop, and logged into my art class session. My ceiling light shone down, changing my camera’s lightning to a warm yellow. Time passed, my teacher taught, then she asked us a question. I contemplated whether I should answer on the microphone or type my answer. I chose the former.

Despite speaking for a mere few seconds, I smiled for the rest of the day. I went to bed that day with sore cheeks and deeper smile lines. It's funny how the things I do now are things that would have caused me to faint back then: two months ago, I applied for an internship. A few weeks ago, I signed up to be part of my school’s SkillsUSA leadership team. In the future, I'll be tutoring math and English online. And now, I verbally communicate with my teachers almost every week.

I find it lovely that art class was the first time I said to myself, “Speak,” rather than be told that. My art teacher is peacefully encouraging—she tells us, her students, to answer on the mic, but she does not pressure us. In the feedback sections of my assignments, she leaves kind notes. She is like the sun, representing warmth and happiness. After every class session with her, I think, “This is the best teacher I’ve ever had,”—an un-erasable teacher. Although she is not the reason for my growth, her gentleness definitely played a part.

A CONSTANT GROWER

I still have a long way to go, yet I’ve already learned that growth requires risks. If you continuously step outside your comfort, you are continuously one step closer to where you want to be. In my case, it is being a leader. Success does not happen without risks—unharmful risks, that is. Be a constant grower, and the farmer (yourself) will love you the most.

Sincerely, Wordynora.