Happy Tuesday everyone.

This week I wanted to get a bit deeper into high school relationships and drama. Most of the time, we’re so buried in academics that other things don’t really matter, especially if you’re an upperclassman, but sometimes outside factors including drama with friends or family can affect our performance in school. 

Though this is slightly touched on by the staff on campus, what I’m talking about is slightly different because they mostly talk about bullying with other students. But at the end of the day, any tension in a relationship that’s important to you, will affect you at school. 

For instance, if you were to come to school Monday morning after having a horrible weekend, your day will most likely not be good, and your focus won’t be there 100%. However, if your weekend was pretty good, your Monday has higher chances of being more enjoyable.  

From personal experience, I know that when there is something going on outside of school, that’s where most of your attention lies. So if possible, clear it up, and fix whatever is going on so that when you come to school it isn’t affecting you.  

Counselors are also another great source of help. Talking to someone who isn’t your parents or family can be extremely helpful. Just getting your feelings out there in a safe and caring place is really important, especially because in our age group, our brains are still developing. If we teach ourselves from an early age to bottle up our feelings and not express them in some way, when we are adults chasing our careers, it’s going to be much more difficult for us. This may seem like a very teacher thing to say but if we aren’t practicing good communication skills right now, we aren’t setting ourselves up for success. 

But a good way to not have to think about such things at school is to not bring it to school at all. Personally, if I’m fighting with someone or there’s some sort of drama going on in my life, I try to fix it, or at least put a pin in it so that when I come to school I can focus on academics and extracurriculars without being distracted.  

If you are being bullied or know someone who may be being bullied here at school, please report it anonymously on the STOP IT app and please reach out to your counselor or anyone you find trustworthy really.