Going back to school brings an abundance of mixed emotions to us students. It is both a sad and exiting time of year. Going back to school is a sad time because it means that summer is ending and therefore so is our freedom. It means an end to countless hours spent sleeping in, going to bed late and doing whatever we want. It is also an exciting time because it means a fresh start. There is excitement about new classes, teachers and school supplies. A new school year is one of the best times to get ourselves motivated to do well both academically and personally. It is also nice to see friends that we have not seen over the summer. I know that for me and for many going back to school brings a lot of anxiety because of all the changes that are happening. We get worried about not knowing if our friends are in our classes or where our classes are. The first week or so of school is a lot time spent settling in and being exposed to new things. I wanted to write this blog post to talk about some tips to make a smooth transition back to school being both motivated, energized and happy. Enjoy!

Set goals

I think that the most important thing to do for yourself before going back to school is to set personal goals. It does not just have to be academic goals such as getting honour roll. You goals can be to make more friends or to join a sports team or club. Setting goals for yourself will have a great impact on your mindset for the whole school year. If your set your mind to achieving a goal, you will automatically do whatever it takes to achieve it and will be motivated to do so. Not having any goals means that you will not have a final destination to work towards. This leads you to not having any motivation to do well, resulting in a unsuccessful school year both academically and personally.

Normalize your sleeping patterns

With summer brings late nights and even later mornings. During the school year we are conscious to go to sleep at an appropriate time to ensure that we are able to get up early to get ready and arrive to school on time. You may be thinking how are you possibly going to get back to routine when for the past two months you have been going to sleep close to midnight and waking up close to noon. A good tip to regulate your sleeping patterns is to start going to bed a little earlier each night and waking up a little earlier each morning a few days before school starts. You may be thinking that you shouldn’t start going to bed early because you want to hold onto summer as long as you can, but you will be happy in the end that you did. When you are able to wake up the morning of the first day of school without much trouble you will greatly thank yourself. Remember that as humans we need at least 8 hours of sleep to function properly. Being well rested ensures that you will be able to learn at your full potential and be energized all day long.

Get new supplies

Nothing says a new school year more then fresh school supplies and new clothes. For me personally getting new school supplies and clothes  motivates myself to do well and stay organized as well as get excited for the upcoming year. Not only does getting new supplies get me motivated but getting nice ones such as colourful binders and pens gets me even more excited.  Having cool supplies makes me want to use them more, therefore allowing myself to stay organized. Weird I know, but it works for me and can work for you too. Get yourself some colourful binders, cool pens and a cute pencil case. You do not even have to spend a fortune on them, the dollar store has some really nice options as well. I assure you that if your buy supplies that your like you will actually be motivated to use them. Another aspect of going back to school that gets everyone excited is getting new clothes. Just as I said about the school supplies go shopping and buy clothes that make you feel good and give you confidence. Your confidence will definitely be noticed by others.

Organize yourself

You will want to organize yourself a dew days before school starts. Strive to do this to ensure that you have all the supplies and clothes that you need and that it is all ready for your first day back. If you give yourself a few days before to make sure that you have everything that you need you will still have the chance to get any remaining items you do not have. Once you have everything that you need you will want to start putting it all together and preparing yourself. Put your dividers and paper into your binders, and put all your pens and pencils into your pencil case. I think that it is also helpful to make a personal survival kit for any little things that you may need throughout the day.

The kit can include

• Hairties
• Kleenex
• Lip Balm
• Hand Cream
• Bobby Pins
• Mascara
• Concealer
• Advil/Tylenol
• Hairbrush
• Nail File
• Floss
• Bobby Pins
• Band aids

Think positively

As the months in school pass our motivation decreases resulting in our work efforts and grades to go down as well. We lose our motivation throughout the school year because we fail to remember our goals and why we made them in the first place. To help avoid this from happening there are a number of things that we can do. Once we are brought back the mindset when we first made those goals then we will be motivated again to achieving them. One of the ideas that I came up with was to create an inspiration board including all of the things that you want to accomplish and positive quotes to keep your going. Once you have created the board unique to you hang it up somewhere that you will always see it . This allows you to constantly be reminded of your goals and be motivated to achieving them. Another way to stay focused is to watch inspirational videos and read inspirational stories about successful people in our world. These people will motivate you to want to do the same and restart the hard work efforts once again. If you think more positively about accomplishing your goals and believe that you will have a good and happy school year then that outcome is inevitable.

The key to starting a new school year and being successful is to set goals, think positively and organize yourself. I hope that you all found these tips helpful in many ways. Overall do what ever you need to do and what is best for you to ensure that you have the best and most successful fresh start. I wish you all a fanatic first day and great school year!