Your Best School Year Yet

With so many of us heading back to school (although I don’t start until September 27!), I thought I’d write about how you can have your happiest academic year yet. Some of us look forward to these first days of school when clothes are new and old friends are back in our lives. Others dread the doom day for it’s showering of books and if you’re not lucky, grumpy teachers.But no matter how you CHOOSE to look at it, there’s one word that has kept popping all month for me: perspective. You decide how you want to foresee the year ahead. Do you envision it as the best year ahead with new opportunities for friendships and troves of knowledge waiting to be unlocked? Or do you see it as a year of painfully boring classes with little to no hope of fun?You decide. I genuinely think this can be your best year yet, no matter what grade you’re in (and even if you’re not in school!) Here are some Sunny Suggestions to get this new school year started right:1. Plan to make a new friend: School isn’t just about academic growth—it’s personal as well. Make an effort to break out of your band of best friends and add a new one to the pack. If someone inspires you, makes you laugh, or adds fun to your life, let them in and learn from them.2. Kindle your passion to learn: I think we sometimes get bogged down in the mother load of papers, books, and tests. But let’s not forget—despite what California may obsess out—it’s about swallowing information rather than spitting it up for a test.3. Find a weakness and make it stronger: Look around your school. Where do you see a need? In my high school we had no program to teach the consequences of drinking and driving—I made it my mission to bring Every 15 Minutes to our campus. What can you do to make your place of learning better for you and your peers?4. Find a weakness in YOURSELF and make it stronger: Have a personal goal for the year. Mine is to read more and to exercise more. Do you need to be more organized? More motivated? Go in with a mission this year and work toward it every day.5. Make it visual: Keep your work in front of your eyes. Write your goals and put them on your walls. Keep your homework and books around. Don’t let yourself forget what you want to achieve this year.I genuinely hope you have your best year yet. It is full of potential. Just like you.Keep shining,The Sunny Girl, Lauren Cook