Sleep More

Sleep More

Are you tired? I bet that is a yes if you are a teenager in high school. Almost every student at Kennedy High School would answer this question saying yes. Found on the website (National Sleep Foundation) one study found that only 15% of teens are getting 8 ½ hours of sleep on school nights. Teens should be getting 9 to 8 ½ hours each night. Not getting enough sleep will lead to less focus in school which will then lead to poor grades. This is why every student should go to sleep at a decent time.

From being a teen and a student in high school, I would say it is difficult to sleep 8 ½ to 9 hours each night. Being in sports and having homework each night makes it challenging to be in bed at a decent hour. Sometimes after a practice I just want to go to sleep and forget the homework but I know that is probably not a good idea.

For students who are not in sports and that don’t have a busy life, have no excuse. They should be able to finish their homework and get into bed at a decent hour.

Teens lacking sleep has been a problem not just recently but for a long time. I have one reason why this could be; all of the different social networks. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have become very popular within this past year. Facebook has always been a popular network but the other three have really increased in usage.

All of these different types of social networks make teens loose their focus everywhere else, such as school. They pay more attention to their phones on these social networks causing them to stay up later to finish homework. This leads to less sleep for teens over the night.

If students don’t mind not receiving enough sleep then I guess it doesn’t matter, but when people complain there is a problem. Hopefully someday everyone will be able to get enough sleep, which will lead to more successful lives.  

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Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving Break

Thank goodness there was a break from school. I believe every hard working student deserves a break from school. This past week we had a week off from the place we all don’t want to be; school. When you have been in school for three months, it is nice to have a time to relax without any homework to accomplish.

When students don’t receive a break, I feel like they become lazy towards their school work. More students would have started to slack off if we didn’t have a thanksgiving break. These breaks provide a lot of relaxing and time with your family.

                There are schools that don’t give their students a thanksgiving break like the one we receive. They just get the day before thanksgiving off instead of the whole week like we do. I mean at least they are getting a couple days off. But if they were only to have Thanksgiving Day off then you would see a raise of lazy work ethics in students.

                The only thing that I hate about breaks is that out of the three breaks that we receive a year, two of them are within the same month. After we get back from thanksgiving break, there are only twenty school days till Christmas break. This is a good and a bad thing. It is good because we don’t have to be at school for that long within the two months of November and December. It is bad because the breaks aren’t spread out. After Christmas, we have two more months until the next week break.

                If administrators and teachers want their students to be productive in school, then they need to provide them with a week break. They will see more out of students by giving them time to relax. That is why I believe our administrators expect more out of us. We work hard, so they provide us with breaks. I know that isn’t exactly why we have them but we should still be rewarded for doing hard work.

                If more and more schools provide breaks then they will see a raise in their work ethics. Maybe they should try it to see if anything happens in their students’ ability to learn and work hard.

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One more game to state...

One more game to state...

Everyone knows that if the volleyball team gets to state, the whole student body is let out early to attend the game. I hear in my classrooms all the time, “Madi you have to go to state this year so that we can have early outs.” This is something that makes me very irritated. Obviously if the school is letting out students early because of the volleyball match you would think that they would actually attend the game…but no. That is not what happens.

               Anyone who tells you to win so that they can get an early out and then not even attend the game is just rude. The reason why you are getting an early out is because of us and you don’t even come to support? Yeah that does not make much sense. I hope that this doesn’t happen this year. People who tell us to win so that they can get an early out better go to our games at state.

              Since we have just beat Waterloo West, we now have to play Dubuque Hempstead to make it to state. Hempstead is a very good team and is ranked third in the state right now. We have played them early this season and lost in three. In that game we didn’t play our hardest. I know for sure that we can beat them this time. Our heads need to be in the game at all times though.

             They have a lot of good players on their team but so do we. This game is going to be a very good match up within the two teams. I am excited to get out on the court and show Hempstead that we are better than what they saw last time we played them. When we played Waterloo West the other night, we came out with a lot of excitement. That is what we need to do on Tuesday night against Dubuque Hempstead. If we come out with the same excitement we will have a high chance in beating the Mustangs.

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Beat the Wahawks!

Beat the Wahawks!

It is coming down to the end of the volleyball season. Am I ready for it to be over? Well not yet, we still have work to accomplish. Last night was our first regional match. Usually we receive a bye first round because we do so well at the beginning of the year. This year we decided to wait till half way of the season to start playing good. That then kicked us in the butt because we had to play a first round regional game.

Our team defeated Marshalltown last night 3-0. It was a good win for us to move on to our next match against Waterloo West on Thursday night in Waterloo. We didn’t play as good as we wanted last night but “a win is a win as long as we keep winning” is what our coach says to us. Thursday night will be a tough match for us. We have played Waterloo West in a tournament a couple weeks ago and defeated them 2-0. They stuck with us though not allowing us to blow them out.

Since it is the end of the season and it is a, lose and your done situation, everything matters. Every practice needs to be sharp, being productive and accomplishing goals that we have wanted to all season. We could use all the help we can get on Thursday night in Waterloo. I know there is a pep bus so sign up for it. The more fans that are there cheering us on the more likely it will be to win. If you guys want early outs this year, than us volleyball girls need to make it to state. To make it to state though we will need as many fans as possible. So come help us on Thursday in Waterloo to beat the Wahawks.

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Moving Out

Moving Out       
            
             Have you ever had a close relationship with someone who lives in your own home that moves away? I have had close relationships with two people who have moved out of my house in the past year and a half. The two people consist of my older sister, Olivia and my cousin, Cody. My sister Olivia is 19 and went to college about a year and a half ago and my cousin Cody just moved out this past July. Cody is a girl; yes many people find that very odd that a girl would have the name Cody.

             Olivia and I have had a close relationship for a couple years now after passing the “immature” stage. We used to fight all the time and didn’t even want to be together but ever since I was in 6^th grade I started to become very close to her. Olivia having to leave me a year and a half ago was extremely different. Not being able to see her every day when I came home from school and running errands with her was just not right. I never really knew how it was going to be when it was her time to move out until the day came and didn’t see her when I arrived home.

            My cousin Cody had lived with us for about 3 years. After she attended Kirkwood she enrolled in Mount Mercy. When she went to Kirkwood she lived in an apartment with friends from high school because her parents lived in DeWitt, Iowa which is about an hour and a half away. But when she left Kirkwood to attend Mount Mercy she moved in with us. By moving in our home, she was given the option to “live” for “free”.

           Cody was like another older sister to me. She was another member of our family. This girl was always there for me when I needed help. We treated each other like sisters and probably always will. It was kind of nice to have Cody still living at my house after Olivia left. It made it not as hard living without Olivia at home when Cody was still there. This is the first year Cody hasn’t lived with us in quite some time now and it is kind of hard. Cody’s room in our house was down stairs with me. Now that Cody doesn’t live there, I am all alone in the basement every night when I am up late doing homework.

I always enjoyed coming home late from a basketball or volleyball game going into Cody’s room and talking with her while everyone else was asleep. Having her leave our family has been difficult. My parents adored her in every way possible. We would sometimes come home from a tournament and the house would be completely spotless. The floors would be vacuumed and the furniture dusted. This made my mom a very pleased lady.

            I know that both of these people have made a huge impact on my life and still do. It was harder to say see yeah to Cody than Olivia because my sister will always come back to our house to visit but Cody is moving on in her life and starting a real job. I know it is going to be harder for Cody to come back to visit than my sister but both people I love so much and wish I could move back 3 years so we could all live together again.

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Visiting Colleges

Visiting Colleges

                I am only a junior and I am starting to look at colleges. I have been told by many people that looking at colleges before your senior year is a brilliant thing to do. If you wait till you are a senior to just start researching colleges then you will very rushed to pick a college that is best for you.

                Touring/visiting colleges is probably the best thing that you can do. As a junior I have visited two colleges this past summer. Both schools are around Kansas City. William Jewel University and Rockhurst University are the two colleges I have toured. I am so glad that I decided to go on these two visits because then my process of choosing a college has officially started.

                Out of the two colleges that I visited I liked Rockhurst better. The campus was a little bigger than William Jewel and it felt a lot more of my type of college. I will most likely play basketball or volleyball in college so right now I am just waiting to see what opportunities I will be given. I was looking at the William Jewel basketball program and the Rockhurst Volleyball program. While touring Rockhurst, they had a volleyball camp going on so it was exciting to see their team in action.

                I have only visited two colleges and I already am worrying. It is going to be crazy once I visit over ten and having to pick one college to attend. The only bad thing about going on those two visits this past summer was the fact that I still have another year ahead of me which I will be visiting a lot more. When it comes down to actually making a decision to which college I will attend, the two that I have already visited will not be as clear in my head as the others. That is why I think I should have maybe waited a little bit longer. But this way I have experienced two different colleges already and can add more to the list.

                If you are a junior and haven’t visited any schools, I would start because in the end it will all be worth it. You will have a lot more of a variety of schools to choose from then waiting till the last minute and only being able to choose from two. If you are a senior and haven’t started then I hope that this blog gave you a lot of motivation to start looking at schools. And if it didn’t then good luck!

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Cocky Much?

Cocky Much?

                I absolutely hate when people are cocky. I cannot stand when someone says “Yeah, I am just so good at football.” Like who are they trying to impress? It is just very annoying when I hear these kinds of phrases because you can still be good without being cocky. I know people say that you have to be confident to be good at something which yes I agree with that but that doesn’t mean you need to show it.

                If you were asked how you played after a game to someone who wasn’t there you could tell them if you had a good game or not. After a basketball game you don’t need to tell everyone that you had 23 points and 5 blocks. You could just say that you had a good game. Telling your close friends and family is a different thing but if you post that on Twitter or Facebook that is a little ridiculous. I believe if you become too cocky you will not be good anymore. You will lose the talent you once had.

                There are ways you can be cocky without showing it. After a good game of yours you can act normal. Just take the compliments people give you and move on. If you are an athlete you will have more than just one good game. Move on and see if you can make the next game good also. Not being cocky will get you far in life. Being cocky, I don’t think will.

                I know people say that Michael Jordan was cocky and LeBron but really I bet they weren’t cocky until they got to the stage they are now in life. Once you get to that stage, you should have the right to become cocky. I know that might sound weird but when you are young and cocky, you give up on things faster. If you think you are really good at something then you will not try to get better at it because you think you already are good enough. This is just not right. That is why I think once you get to the highest stage, be cocky all you want because you deserve to be.

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