The sun is still shining, the tan lines are fresh, and the air conditioning is still on blast. Teachers have not been holding back now that the school year has begun. While some students are ready to embark on their journey into a new school year with new teachers and new classes, others not so much.
Learning Skills teacher Holly McCarthy shared her observations and thoughts on students still being in a summer mindset. McCarthy shared, “I see some students that are still stuck in a summer mindset which is a dangerous place to be right now because we are already a few weeks into the school year and most teachers started instruction of new material the first or second week of school.” McCarthy voiced that the weather may also play a part in how students are performing in school. McCarthy stated, “It is difficult to switch off the summer mindset when it still feels like summer outside.” This leads to an important question, will the return of the pumpkin spice latte remind students that fall is approaching and summer is officially over?
Senior Hoya Del Rio agrees with McCarthy, but shared, “I feel like since school started, I haven't been able to enjoy the nice weather because tests were coming up and we had to catch up on homework and just keep piling up.” This is something McCarthy has been noticing around campus from various students. Del Rio is not the only student that feels this way. Junior Zoe Lehrman shared her thoughts on the school year so far: “I am stuck in the summer. I feel like we should have had another month before school started. I think that I'm still stuck in the summer and I need to stay on top of my school work.” While Lehrman is aware that she needs to start focusing on school, Del Rio feels the opposite. “It’s kind of a waste of time for me when I could be using that time to focus on something that I really want to do especially as a senior, I feel like senior year should be time to focus on college and not working on “oh I got to write all these notes for a test” when it’s our last year and it’s not really something we want to focus on,” Del Rio explained.
While McCarthy, Lehrman, and Del Rio have different opinions on how the school year should be going, they all feel impacted by the weather. The weather can change how we navigate our school work. Del Rio has an answer for that. “It’s hot so I just like to be inside or just kinda chilling or go outside and it kinda drifts me apart. Usually when I’m doing school work, it’s usually kind of sad and depressing,” Del Rio explained. Lehrman also says that she believes, “once it turns colder, I will lock in more. Because the weather's colder, it's no longer summer so nothing reminds me of summer.” Surprisingly, McCarthy feels the same way. “It still feels like summer outside,” McCarthy stated.
While school still feels like summer, some choose to take their work seriously and forget about the sun, and others choose to forget it all, including the sunscreen. It is never too late to start getting your homework in, even if the sun is still shining. If you want to turn your school work around, but you feel like it’s too late, just remember that what you are not changing, you are choosing. Every day you wake up, you are one day closer to graduating, so what are you going to do with the time you have left?
“I feel like a lot of people have things that they want to do outside of school, and I feel school keeps them in kind of like a bubble and stops them from really reaching their full potential and working on what they want to work on, like their hobbies because sometimes you get carried away with too much school, you forget what you're even doing.” Del Rio expressed. Keep doing what you love, whether it is seeing a 10/10 on your Canvas assignment, or making a three pointer at your basketball game and if you really need to, go run into the sunshine.
