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[saramilam5]

How do you plan to achieve your current goals?

Having goals set is huge for many people. This gets you to work hard to achieve these goals and have a high bar set for yourself. Currently my two goals are to make it to the state softball tournament and to graduate high school with honors. These goals will take a lot of dedication, hard work, and lots of time, but I know personally that I can do it.

Getting to the state softball tournament will take a lot of work. As a team, and an individual, there is a lot of time that needs to be put in at practice. Every day I work hard to better myself, and to be a better teammate for those around me. To achieve this goal, as a team, we try to keep our heads held high, and go out and play our best game every game. No matter the circumstance we always do our best and have a good mindset.

Graduating with honors for me would be a huge accomplishment. I have always wanted to be a top student in my class and I know that I can be. These last few weeks of school, I am going to make sure I have everything turned in completed to my absolute best. I want to succeed, and give my 100% to each and every assignment I do, and then I know I will achieve my goal.

[saramilam5]

What are your top 3 distractions? How do you deal with them?

Being distracted is huge for me, and that is part of the reason I procrastinate so much. Having a distraction can cause a lot of stress and anxiety later on. My top 3 distractions are social media, my friends, and driving around. These distractions do cause me a lot of stress when it comes to having school work, and procrastinating to get my school work done. It is also a struggle for me to deal with these things, but having a planner and knowing what I need to do each day has helped me get my things done.

My top distraction is social media and being on my phone, this is a distraction to me because I am so drawn into what is going on on social media and all the drama around the famous people. This makes me procrastinate doing my school work for sure. My next distraction is hanging out with my friends. If I have an assignment due, or a lot of work to do, I would rather go hangout with my friends so when they ask, I always say yes, but really I should be at home doing my schoolwork. The last distraction for me is driving around. When I am stressed and don't want to do something, going out for a drive is a way I just get myself out of it, and then I will come home and go right to bed, I won't even look at my school work or anything, so that for sure is a distraction.

Dealing with all of these things can be hard. I deal with these things by telling myself "put the phone down," or "Say no, you have homework to do." Telling myself to do these things helps, and also having my planner helps. Knowing what I need to get done that day helps me get myself to do it and have it done by the end of the day.

[saramilam5]

What do you like to learn about?

For me, learning is extremely important. I love to learn new things everyday, but something I am really passionate about is learning the development and growth of children. I love to learn about this stuff because it is so interesting how much school, and having that social interaction can teach us and especially kids. As kids are young, they tend to be shy and not know much, but as they grow older they love to hang out with their friends and introduce themselves to their peers. It is so interesting to learn at what age kids learn what, and what age they start to come out of their shell and be more open.

Learning these things about kids has been huge especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic really affected a lot of people. It affected us by taking jobs, not being able to go out anywhere, places being shut down, and not getting to have that social interaction that is needed. This really affected the lifestyle of many kids, especially that social interaction piece. Finishing the school year of 2019-2020 off in a pandemic was extremely hard. Kids had to do school online, they couldn't get that social interaction in person with their peers, and they had to try to learn stuff online, which isn't easy. During this time, kids missed out on a ton of things that they needed. Getting back into the school year of 2020-2021 in person, you could tell what the kids had missed out on and what the schools would need to catch them up on.

Learning about all this stuff has been interesting for me, because I never really knew how much all these things were so important for kids, and for them growing up. Working at our local day care through the school, which offers grads K-5, has also taught me so much about all of this. Seeing these kids everyday interacting with each other makes it that much more easier to tell how much these kids missed out on doing this stuff. Catching them up on what they missed last year can be hard to do, but these kids really need that.

[saramilam5]

Health and Fitness when you have a busy lifestyle!

Staying healthy and having good fitness can be hard when you are busy, but there are many tips that can help you make sure you involve those things in your daily life. A few tips that can help are making a list, learning quick recipes, relax, and stay active. Another huge option is to get enough sleep. You will want to be well rested for whatever your day may bring to you. Try not to eat fast food or greasy foods when in a rush, try to cook, or pack a healthy lunch for when you are on the go.

For me, everyday I make a list, on this list it tells me what I have to do that day for homework, work, sports, what kind of exercise I am going to focus on, and meal plan for the day. This has helped me tremendously because then I know what I have to do that day and to accomplish my goals I have to cross them off, so that motivates me to get them done. Another tip that has helped me is to relax. When my body feels tired I know to relax, I take a bath, and have some me time. I like to focus on myself to better myself so that when I am ready to go I am always going 100%. I am also very active. Being a high school student, sometimes this can be hard. Working 2 jobs, having school and playing a sport can be really hard on yourself. During the day I try to drink lots of water, have healthy snacks, and fore the most part I try to have healthy snacks, and a healthy meal.

Overall, having a healthy lifestyle will make you a happier person, and can help you succeed a ton in life. Theses tips may help you accomplish these goals, and help you to live that happy and healthy lifestyle while still having a busy lifestyle, whether its with work, sports, or even having kids will keep you busy.

[saramilam5]

Sports Photography!

Taking sports photos can be very entertaining for you, not only for the love of taking photos, but it also keeps you involved in the game and you can really get to know the game just by taking pictures. Taking sports photos also puts a lot of pressure on you and gets your adrenalin pumping. You want to make sure you have the right camera to get action shots, and the right lens. You should also know the different tools your camera may offer to you when you are taking photos.

While taking sports photos, antipode the action that is about to happen. Put yourself in the best spot of the field, arena, court, or whatever it may be. Anticipate something is about to happen rather than reacting when it happens. Sometimes knowing how a player plays can help you place where you are going to get the best shot of that player scoring a goal, getting a hit, catching a ball, etc. When you are taking these action photos, make sure to use a faster shutter speed, this will help you get those best action photos and make the athletes enjoy seeing them more, especially when it could be the play of the game photo!

Overall, taking sports photos is a great opportunity for you especially if you love the sport, or you are really interested in getting to know the sport, and how it is played. This may also help you learn new techniques of placement, or where to stand to take photos, and different settings on your camera to get the best shot that you may not have known about. Taking sports photos can be something that makes you extremely happy in life overall!

[saramilam5]

Helping out small businesses!

While living in a smaller community, helping out small businesses can be very big for someone. Most small businesses are individually owned, and that is their only source of income. Your support to them, means the absolute world, and they love your faces every time that you walk through the door to buy their products. Even a small donation could help them out and make their day. Another way you can help out a small business is to spread the word, share their business with a friend, or post it on social media so others know about them and can support them just like you do. Tag them in your post, and write a nice review so others know what they are getting or how the business is.

In my small town, we have a nutrition shake and tea shop, B-Fierce Nutrition. This shop is ran by an individual who started it and is now branching out into other towns. She started this business in 2019, and has one worker running it now while she is elsewhere running the same type of shop. A couple times a week I go down to support them by buying a tea and the worker there, Denice absolutely loves seeing me and her other costumers come through the door. Over the few years, the business has improved tremendously offering a new menu, and now they offer coffee options. B-Fierce Nutrition is outstanding and they are improving customers each and every day. This is a prime example on why we support local, and small businesses, so they can improve just like the big businesses.

[saramilam5]

Healthy Eating During Stress

Having a healthy eating habit can be very hard when you are stressed out. This can cause "stress eating" where you eat all the time, whether its junk food or not, you just eat to help your stress, or for some, they may not eat at all and that can be a huge problem for your health. Try to set up a nutrition plan to help you make sure you are eating healthy but also to try and reduce the stress you are having. A few examples that can help reduce stress are drinking lots of water, lower calorie foods such as carrots, celery, or even just eating plain popcorn.

I have struggled with this especially throughout high school, because I am one that tends to procrastinate. Towards the end of each school year, I tend to have a lot of homework to do, and it puts so much stress on me to get it done while playing a sport, and having a job. Something that has helped me with that is trying to eat healthy, I try to drink 3-4 water bottles a day, and I try to make sure I get all my meals in each day. This helps me stay motivated to get work done, and not give up on it. Having a healthy eating habit, will not only reduce your stress, but it can also help you live a happier lifestyle.

[saramilam5]

Bullying

Bullying is a huge issue in the U.S, and somehow it is a struggle to stop it. There are different kinds of bullying including physical bullying, cyberbullying, verbal bullying, and sexual bullying, are just a few. Physical bullying is the most common type of bullying, this is where kicking, hitting, punching, slapping, shoving, are all involved, and it is mainly with young children. The next main type of bullying is verbal bullying. Verbal bullying is where your word affect someone. The way you talk to others, or use main words can extremely affect them and can be considered bullying. The third main type is cyberbullying. This is another huge one especially today sine every teenager is on some type of social media. This is where other people attack someone on social media about what they are doing or what they post, mainly because of jealousy. This hurts that person, and it feel like they can't defend themself or no one can do anything about it because no one sees it, or reads the comments, but themselves.

Personally, I have had many experiences with all kinds of bullying. When I was first introduced to "Musically" which is now "TikTok," I was in 4th grade, and I thought they were fun so I would make them all the time. I remember people making fun of me at school for what I had posted and they would think it was funny, so instead of me being confident, it made me upset and mad so I would go home from school and delete the posts because it hurt my feelings so bad. Another example is with sports growing up. I have always been a mediocre athlete, and I was never the BEST but I was never the WORST. I remember for club volleyball, if I would make a better team then any of the older girls that would try out they would get mad, and just talk completely down on you to try to make you look bad. I was always so upset about it because honestly, I would think too myself "like sorry i'm better than you" or something like "I didn't choose the team so why are you mad at me?" This was always something really hard growing up, but as I've gotten older I have learned to not care what others think and to just be myself, and that is the best thing you can do, as well as surround yourself with a supportive, good group of friends and family.

[saramilam5]

Time goes by..

This year is a very different and weird year for a lot of seniors including myself! For many seniors this year we have not gotten the typical senior year! It is hard for many to understand the struggles we face going through “our year” during a pandemic. There is no dances, no homecoming, no pep rally's, nothing really! For me personally it feels like I am apart of any grade other than the “senior class.” With the pandemic continuing, it is hard for teachers and schools to really recognize the seniors and do the normal things seniors should be able to do. The pandemic started at the end of my junior year and affected my spring sports season and affected going to prom. Prom is something many people look forward to in high school and unfortunately, I may not even get to experience one! 

During this time and being a senior during a pandemic, our mental health can relay get bad. Something that has really helped me and can help others too is surrounding yourself with people you love! Try and stay in a routine and stay active! I try and exercise every day and try to get lots of water and eat healthy. With school going on in the pandemic and for some of us, only going to school a few days a week, it can be hard to stay motivated to get things done. Exercising, drinking lots of water, staying healthy, and having a set time to wake up every morning and get ready can really help keep you motivated!