It is no secret that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools across the country have had to make certain choices to protect their students. While I understand this and do not blame any administrators or anyone at all for these circumstances, the fact is school has become even more boring than before. In past years, when one started to feel down at Academic Magnet they could simply look forwards to their next field trip, school dance, or spirit week to lift their moods. Now that those activities are not allowed due to Covid, it has gotten tough to keep a good attitude at school. With what feels like everyday CCSD telling you what you can and can’t do, and then changing the rules the following day, it is no surprise that many students spend their rest-time at school scrolling through their phones aimlessly instead of talking to their friends about upcoming plans. Here is what I recommend to get yourself out of this funk and keep a semi-positive attitude.

1.) Go talk to someone, not in your class

If allowed, getting a change of scenery during class can refresh and brighten a day very quickly, giving you the mindset to be ready to learn. Say you are extremely bored in class one day, the weather’s bad, your classroom has bad signal, and you don’t like anyone in your current classroom, GO FOR A WALK. Not a walk outside, but around the building. Go up the back stairs by Mr. McGill’s room and down the stairs by Ms. Colon, and you have completed an entire tour of our campus. If you do this, I can confirm with personal experience, some teacher will not have a class and will put up with you sitting in their classroom for at least a couple of minutes, or other students in the hall wanting to talk.

I believe my leaving class to go talk to other teachers or students in the hall to be one of the best rituals I picked up on. The information you learn from a quick gossip sesh with a teacher or the inside scoop of what is going on behind closed doors allows you to have a better understanding of the real AMHS community, therefore allowing you to be a real raptor.

2.) Plan fun (safe) things to do out of school that you can look forward to while at school

This could be anything from simply getting dinner with friends to planning a weekend/day-trip to somewhere easy. The possibilities are endless and you can start getting creative with activities to do. For example, I went bowling with friends out of school in some uncrowded bowling alley where there were only a couple of other people in the entire building, still had a great time. Having something that you know will bring you good vibes in the future allows you to focus on the positives instead of the negatives. I do not think I could have survived this year this long without the “well at least after this class I can go do something fun”.

You can also create fun things to do by yourself. Screw other people, who needs them? Go for a walk on the beach or to a cool record store downtown. Do whatever you vibe with, and the great thing is it really can be ANYTHING that makes you happy if you are by yourself. Into anime but worried friends might judge? Go to some anime store or whatever they have by yourself and face no judgment. Basically, just live your truth.

3.) Pregame before school with caffeine

For me, a school morning without caffeine is no school morning. I have sacrificed being late on a quiz day, spent money I did not even have, and driven miles out of my way on an empty tank of gas for some caffeine before school. As mentioned in previous articles, I have always stuck to energy drinks in the past. But as of now, I have started forcing myself to drink coffee so that I’ll like it. The shift from the two substances has caused some differences. I notice that coffee makes me more jittery than Redbull despite the narrative being pushed that energy drinks are the ones with too much. Either way, this jittery high from an abundance of caffeine intake is what makes my first few moments at school bearable.

I should note that many faculty members like Ms. Pinckney, Mr. Cosgrove, etc. disapprove of a lot of caffeine, believe them as you will.

With all this being said, the coronavirus pandemic has caused countless deaths throughout the world. While this does not make the fact we do not get to do a party in the lounge on Wall Day suck any less, it does allow us to put things into perspective to at least not become bitter towards the new norm.