F.+Midterm+Essay

Dear Kaleigh, If you have not realized by now, it is 2011 and it is time to stop playing games! It is time to grow up and finally achieve those goals that you have been putting off since last year. You need to work your hardest and become more critical with your school work, do better at managing your time, and start planning for college and the next few upcoming years. Your school work is lacking and that is no secret to you or your teachers, so now is the time to buckle down and start doing things the right way. Imagine if you took the extra hour or so away from being on Facebook or running the town with the girls and put that time to something productive, like studying. It is no secret that you simply do not study and still you are making “average” grades, so why not put in a little more work and show everyone what you can do? If you are blessed enough to be average without trying then how about you try to be brilliant with just a little effort. Now I know that studying may sound like a drag but it does not have to be. No one said you have to sit in a room filled with silence, blank white walls, and a book filled with nothing but small fonts and to many words to remember in order to study. Instead, switch it up; make things like flash cards or jeopardy review games that even the family can get involved in. Another good thing about studying is when you study at home you can achieve more in school. Studying creates a domino effect, but a positive one at that. Start off by taking home the text book and studying for just an hour or so that night. The next day you will go to school and while no one else in your class understands a word the teacher is saying you yourself will be fully engaged in the conversation, and I am sure that is feeling you will enjoy. Now, you are ahead of the class and taking quizzes and tests are nothing but a walk in the park. It is also important to make sure that the work you are turning in is high quality work and is not late. Turning in poor quality work in the end reflects negatively on you not only as a student but also as a person. Poor quality work implies that you are lazy and so does turning your work in late. Late works leads to nothing more than zeros in the grade book and a constant point deduction from your grade. To fix your problem with late work you will need to work on your time management. Time management is a key skill that you will need in the future and is a good skill to develop early in life. Being on time and keeping your life on somewhat of a schedule will eliminate chaos in your life and will help keep you on track. You need to keep a planner of some type with you at all times and it should become your best friend. Write down all your daily activities such as school, homework, time for your friends and family, and free time for yourself. Automatically you should see some type of improvement in your life, and a huge deduction in the amount of chaos that I am sure you once experienced. Learn to allot time efficiently and realistically. Obviously only 20 minutes to do your homework is not enough time to get it done and be work that you would want to reflect on yourself, so be smart when planning. Finally, while planning out your daily events, try to throw in some time for things such as college visits, or time to search the web looking for colleges in your area that you are interested in. It never hurts to plan ahead. You are now in your junior year of high school and within a blink of an eye you will be walking across the stage to receive your diploma at graduation. It is a time in your life where critical decisions need to be made and everything you do from now on will count. So with that being said, it is time to start planning ahead to college. Your junior and senior years are pivotal years that colleges will be looking at academically and socially. Things like your SAT and ACT scores, your semester grades, and even what sports and activities you are involved with could be the final decision on if you are accepted to your dream college or not. College is obviously not a cheap experience and every little bit of money taken off the final cost will help, so now is the time to start looking for any type of scholarship or financial aid you can receive. You can receive scholarships for things such as race, religion, financial standings, and even your gender; the possibilities are endless. So do everything you can to make it easier on mom and dad because believe it or not, now your actions will affect them more than ever. But, instead of doing those things like homework and studying you can always hangout with your friends. It would be way easier to keep going with life the way you are, and why should you put out any extra effort when right now your are having a great time. I will tell you why you should put out that extra effort, because you only live once so you have no room to mess up your future; once it is gone you can never get it back. So stop playing games and get your life back on track. Do your homework, become better at managing your time, and start looking for colleges, it is the best decision you will ever make. Sincerely, Kaleigh Whitelaw