By: Amanda Roberts
Hello! My name is Amanda, and I have some great tips and advice based on my life that I want to share with you. I want to show you how to face any challenges that we have to go through in life.
Let me tell you about me. I am an online student, not because of the pandemic, but because I live very far away from my school. I know what you are thinking; how does that work? Why didn’t you just go to any other school closer to your house? Well, this may sound silly, but it is because I love my school so much that I am willing to take the classes online just for that! I love the way that they teach. I love my friends, and I genuinely love everything about my school.
Anyway, I recently started middle school, so WOW! BIG challenge! Like surfing the ocean! Right now, I have been in middle school for 2 months. Now that I have understood how it works and that I am familiar with my schoolwork. And my teacher, I love it! I feel like I am doing really good too. But I didn’t always feel like this…so keep reading for more big waves headed my way.
HONESTLY, when I first started, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t make it, but I had to start somewhere. Because fear was not going to help me in anything (always remember that), I decided to put on my big girl pants and surf through my first wave.
The first week of school was a little intense for me because I wanted to take a really great workshop. It was only available for me to take during that specific week. I decided to do it, even though I knew it was going to be complicated. In my case, I ended up finishing my weekly assignments on the weekend and during late hours each night. Finally, I finished, and when I did…I am telling you, it felt great! I was so proud of myself!
I could only get online for my class’s morning meetings for a short time each day, and then I had to leave to go to the workshop. I’m going to be honest and tell you that juggling all of that work was more difficult than I expected it to be, and I felt kind of alone trying to make it all work out. If you are going through something similar, remember that it might take some extra hard work, but we can always make it if we put our minds to it. NO MATTER WHAT.
Since then, life has gotten easier. At first, it seemed like I was asking questions from my teacher about every 5 minutes! And it is true, I asked a lot of questions, but those first questions were the ones that helped me learn and understand the work better. Thanks to all of our communication, I barely ask any questions today because now I know the answer. So, if you ever feel guilty about asking a lot of questions, don’t – as long as they are appropriate. Questions really help because the smallest things can make a difference.
Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” This quote means that if we want to grow up to be better…and great people, we have to work hard for that because no one else can do it for us. That’s you and me, even if we’re just kids, we can make the world better. It can be our world or someone else’s, but it is our responsibility.
I found myself really worried that I wasn’t going to get it all right. I think lots of teenagers, and preteens too, get overly anxious. So if there is one thing that I learned about these types of situations, it is that fear can make us do some really silly and crazy things. And guess what, all that fear is only in our heads. If we want to grow up to be amazing adults, we’ve got to learn to be brave and just keep going no matter what hard, hard challenges we have to face.
If you are struggling with insecurity, I want to encourage you to keep pressing on. It’s hard growing up. But hard things make us stronger. You can do it! Don’t forget that.
green beans 