You took your finals and left for winter break. You tried to stop thinking about school and avoided logging into myschoolapp to check your final grades. Now you are back, and trying to go on with a new mindset.

New year, new semester, a new chance to start over and set new goals.

But in this weird place at the start of a second semester, it can be easy to fall into a backward spiral. It can also feel like your past mistakes drag you down and pin you in the past.

How can you continue to stay motivated?

You don’t have to let last semester hold you back. Here are some simple actions that can help you stay on track as you move forward:

• Talk with teachers to help you make a plan for how to do better in tough classes
• Visualize your goals and create a vision board to help push you toward them
• Set small, achievable goals and post them in a list that you see easily every day
• Create a rewards system! This gives you incentive to meet your goals
• Decorate or organize your work environment to make it appealing and motivating

With your goals, your plan and your environment in good shape, here are some dedicated words of encouragement to help you along your way!

Freshmen: You now have an idea of what an Eastside semester looks like and maybe you have realized that doing all those “beyond minimums” on time would raise your Physics grade. Second semester will flow similarly – you got this!

Sophomores: Some of The Eastside Panther editors understand that sophomore year may not come with making up “beyond minimums”, or turning in long extensive papers, but that doesn’t mean you can just settle back. Sophomore year may feel the “easiest”, but you still have work to do. Remember to keep up on the membean and learn those words. Your sophomore year matters, stay in shape!

Juniors: You are not a senior yet, but you will be soon. Whether it be starting to think about college, or writing long research papers, junior year can feel packed. Stay on top of the affirmative action writing process – it is long, but using your work time in class can help. Plus, you need to maintain stamina as you juggle all those APs – AP Lang, AP Spanish, AP Macroeconomics, studying for the upcoming AP Government test – so take those needed study breaks and then come back and focus.

Seniors: The watch word is “senioritis”. Don’t let it get to you. You are just a few months away from graduation day, but there is still so much left in the year! SRI is dominant and you may have to manage some AP classes. Colleges can still change their admission decisions if they see your grades slip dramatically, so stay on track. At the same time, this is your last year here, the Eastside community loves you and appreciates you wanting to make the most out of this year. Go make those friends, join that club, get close to those teachers – you will carry these relationships and experiences into the future!

You’ve got this, Panthers!