Maddison's Musings

High school is hard, and if someone tells you otherwise, then they're obviously lying to you. Every single night I come home and have to do tons of homework- even on the weekends! It's ridiculous! I don't need to be working on homework 24/7! High school is basically four years of stress. But then there are fun aspects, so it makes you want to keep going a little bit, right? I don't know. Take today for example. I've been working on homework basically all day with a few breaks in between. I don't think I've even eaten much today. Not only is homework long and boring, it's also pointless. Most of my homework is for biology or world geography, and it's pointless things! All I do for world geography is take notes. Will I ever use the things I "learn" in the notes in real life? Of course not! Don't even get me started on biology. The unit we're doing right now is evolution. I doubt anybody in my entire school believes in that crap, but we still have to be taught and learn it. The whole concept is weird. Even Charles Darwin, the guy who created the theory, doesn't even believe in it! The only thing that keeps me sane is the fact that I only have ten weeks of school left, which I rounded to about 48 days.

Sorry for the rant, but I just needed to get some things off my chest! I'll try to be back with an actual blog post next week!

~Maddie

If you've never taken a test, then you're obviously not real. Testing is a major part of school, whether you like it or not. Seeing as I have my English  state-wide test on Monday, I thought I would share some tips about studying for an English test (I'll talk about studying for other tests when the time comes closer- late April/Early May).

First and foremost, if you're taking an English test, the best way to study is to practice. Find essay prompts on the internet and practice writing an essay with all the components you need for your test. Set the timer for an hour and start writing! Another way to practice is simply by reading a book. You could either just read for fun, or you could try to make your own practice test by stopping every chapter or so and creating a few questions over the chapter, or you could just stop and let everything sink in before you keep going. Even if you think that you're going to get a 100 on the test, it's always a good idea to go and practice.

Another way you could practice your skills is through spelling. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like a lot of people make spelling mistakes. To practice, you could take at least ten words that you think you'll use on the essay portion and spell them how you would spell it. Then, go to a dictionary and look up the actual spelling. If you got the spelling right, go onto the next word. If you got the spelling wrong, rewrite the word, spelled correctly, a few times to help lodge the correct spelling in your brain.

Everyone has heard people say to get a good night's sleep and to eat a good, healthy breakfast on the day of the test, and it's actually true. (Yes, it actually isn't just some conspiracy made up by adults!) Plan on getting at least seven hours of sleep, but no more than ten. To help get you to sleep, take a shower or bath an hour or two before you think you'll go to bed and stay away from electronics for an hour before bed. If you're not allergic to it, lavender can help relax you, so either drink a tea with it, put some lavender oil on your wrists, or drop some oils into a humidifier. Another calming tea you can drink is chamomile. Breakfast is one of those things where even if you don't usually eat breakfast, you probably should on testing days. Even if it's just a granola bar, any breakfast is better than none. One suggestion would be to try not to stuff your face, as you don't want to risk feeling sick during your test.

Hopefully you'll do great on your test!

~Maddie

School lunches. Everyone has tried them at some point or another, and if you haven't: don't. Let's face it, school lunches are gross. Not only are they unhealthy, but they usually aren't very tasty, and you have to wait in a giant line and barely have time to eat your lunch by the time you get back to your table. Let's take my school for example: I've got through the line a few times with my friends who buy lunch, and I cringe each time. There are super greasy pizzas, old salads, stale chicken, and a "sandwich" that's basically bread, a ton of lettuce, and two slices of slimy lunch meat. Plus, they charge a ridiculous amount. They even charge you for a cup of water; which most restaurants even give you for free. Last, but not least, let's not forget about anything you could find in your food... I'm not going into that though.

I'm not judging if you buy your lunch, I used to buy a lot in elementary school, but stopped completely in 5th grade, and now I pack my lunch everyday. It's kind of funny how most people either buy lunch everyday, or they bring lunch everyday. There really aren't a lot of people who alternate buying and bringing lunch. I guess you just stick to routine.

You may be one of those people who wants to start bringing your lunch, but you don't know what to pack. Have no fear; this is what this next part is about! First thing's first; if you don't bring a water bottle to school, make sure you have a drink, especially water or Gatorade. The next thing you should have is something healthy, whether it's a fruit, a vegetable, yogurt, or just a granola bar or something. If you like sandwiches, make one! If not, you can try bringing soups in a thermos, or a salad in a Tupperware container. Cheese and crackers (and summer sausage) also works well if you don't like sandwiches. You can pack sweets like candy, cake, chips,soda, etc, but I wouldn't pack them everyday. Lunches are super easy to pack once you get used to it; you're just putting in things you like and will actually eat!

~Maddie

Hello everybody! I'm sad to say that my spring break is gone. It went by so fast! Tomorrow I must wake up at 7am and then get ready for school. I have to go back to climbing those awful stairs! No! But I just have 12 more weeks of school. I just keep repeating that, and it at least helps me feel like I can make it. I didn't do much over my break, but I loved it! I had one friend over, but really that's plenty enough. It's kind of funny though, because she's usually super crazy when she comes over, but this time she wasn't (even with two cups of coffee and spoonfuls of sugar in each cup!). I've concluded that she's only really crazy around boys, as this was the first time that my little brother wasn't around. It was surreal.

I've started a new blog! As you might know, I'm a high school student, so I thought I would make a blog filled with advice, tips, tricks, polls, etc! I'll post the link below if you want to go check it out! Like this blog, I'm going to try to post every weekend, and if not, then every other weekend! I'm really excited for this new blog!

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

~Maddie

Hey y'all, it's Maddie! Today has been a great day, and that makes me really happy! I hardly had any work to do in any of my classes, and I spent most of 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th period studying for a geography test over Africa and the Middle East, and I'm pretty sure I got a 100! I didn't study 2nd, 3rd, or 7th period because I had to work in two of the classes, and the other was lunch, and then I took the test in 8th period. Overall, a really easy day! After school I went over to my best friend's house. We only had about an hour and a half to hang out, as then I had to go piano lessons. My mom picked me up from Vivi's house, but then she let me drive to AND from piano! It was so much fun! I love driving so much, especially on the fast roads! Granted, it is a bit scary at first, but once I got the hang of it I couldn't stop smiling! Also, while at piano, my teacher told me that I qualified for state!

Last Saturday (Feb. 22nd) I had a piano competition, and I got a superior! I thought that only superior + got to advance to state, but any superior gets you to state! I made state last year as well, but I didn't go because the timing wasn't right, but I really want to do it this year!

Have you ever thought about how funny your reaction to grades can be? For example, on Wednesday I took three tests, and I got an 85 on two of them, and an 86 on the other. For my math test, I was praising the Lord that I got an 85, that's a good math score for me, and I was proud. For my next test, ASL (American Sign Language), I also got an 85, but I was really upset. I was doing really well in ASL (average of 95), but with that test my average dropped to around a 93/94ish. I would have done amazing on that test, but it had fingerspelling, which I hadn't reviewed in a long while, so I only got one of the four spelled words, meaning I missed six (it had two parts). I now try to review fingerspelling more (I even downloaded an app), so by the next test I will do better. My last test on Wednesday was English. I love English, but the tests usually just annoy me. I got an 86 on this test, which I was just kind of iffy about. I knew I wouldn't do amazing, and I knew I wouldn't fail, so I kind of knew I would get an 85ish or higher. Either way, the way we react to grades kind of just makes me chuckle.

Hello March!

~Maddie