golden-ways

[golden-ways]

Day Three: Grades and School

Unfortunately for those of you who tune in who are not in school, this does not qualify you for present day empathization, but maybe a past “Yeah I totally related back in my day” is in order.

To the topic in hand: Grades. What are grades? They’re letters ranging from A-D and F to show a student how they did academically on an assignment, and are tallied after several grades to give one big grade for a quarter/semester/term/etc. That would be what the technical term for a grade is. To me? They’re just the schools ways of showing us that we’re never going to exceed a certain teachers expectations. 

You’re probably wondering why I decided to bring this topic at hand today, and why I sound so authoritative. Well, we’re so reminiscent of telling ourselves that these measly letters define us by our intelligence, and that isn’t the case.

Being in the United States, I really don’t know how other countries run their education systems, but we have one of the worse. I also happen to live in the state where the education system state-wise is marked 49th place out of 50th. Just having migrated from another state that’s in the top 20′s, it’s weird seeing how many of my fellow junior students don’t know how to annotate a paragraph in English, or have never even heard of the Quadratic Formula in Algebra 2.  It’s also even sadder that this state made marijuana legal in a promise that the funding from said legalization would go to our schools, but we’re honestly not even seeing a penny. Another downside is that majority of my peers (Keep in mind, there’s about 5 thousand students at my school) are potheads, and rarely ever show up to class.

These actions, like ditching and smoking weed (Which, I’m not saying it’s a dumb or bad thing. I’ve gotten high before, but I know not to do it before school and go to school smelling like a blunt.), or even just not paying attention. These are what make our grades so low.

But if you don’t partake in these activities and your grades are still low, I want you to tell yourself this: “I may be failing/My grades might be dropping, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I’m trying my best and that’s all that matters.”

Now, parents really don’t help the situation a lot. They’re up our asses about why we’re failing math or whatever subject we’re failing (For me, it’s French.) My mom, luckily, isn’t like this. She’s the one who encourages me to try my best and if I fail a class, it’s okay, as long as I tried. When I lived with my dad about a year back, he was all about the A’s. His philosophy was that because he got straight A’s in school, I had to as well.

But, ya’ll, this isn’t the case.

Just try your best to succeed. Success only comes through failing miserably. You always start from the bottom, never from the top. If you have to retake courses because you failed them due to depression, not paying attention, smoking, family stuff, or just strictly because you didn’t understand the material, that’s okay. 

Fun Fact: It took Thomas Edison 38 tries to make the lightbulb, and now we use them in our daily lives.

It’s all about trying, being faithful to your studies, and recognizing that these electronic letters literally mean nothing when it comes to defining who you are.

[golden-ways]

Day Two: Sleeping

Today I mention sleeping because my brain is whack. I got home from school at 12:37 pm, when school let out at 11:30 am. I had just had my finals and I was honestly very exhausted, even though I had gotten seven hours of sleep the previous nights before. It’s currently 5:43 pm and I just woke up.

Sleep is a thing all of us humans need to survive. It recoops are brains and rests our bodies. Imagine your body to be like a Lithium Cell Phone Battery. These things die by the end of the day usually, and you charge them while you’re asleep, right? It gets them back to a hundred in a few hours, which is good! For you, it means you’re energized and ready to focus during school or cooperate with tasks during work!

But what happens when you don’t charge your phone battery at night? Say it wasn’t really plugged in or you just passed out or forgot to plug it in. What happens then? Well, it dies earlier and easier, much like a human. Of course, I don’t mean die in the literal perishable sense, but we’re basically brain dead when we don’t get the proper amount of sleep we need each night. We fall asleep while our teachers talking, we refuse to eat, and we even have a hard time registering what people are saying or doing. And when it comes to driving, being sleep deprived is especially dangerous. One blink off the road and you can land yourself in a lake or ditch, or even worse, in another car.

Depression also holds a factor on how we sleep. It mentally drains us so much that we feel physically exhausted and sleep off the feeling, only to wake up feeling even more tired because we had that unnecessary amount of sleep.

Right now you’re probably thinking where the positive is going to show up and when I’m going to say it’s okay to be sleeping all the time. But in all honesty, there’s nothing positive about oversleeping. It makes us even more tired and influences our sleep schedules in a terrible way. It’s hard to function with lack or overdose of sleep

Babies should be getting 16-22 hours of sleep, lucky bastards Children and Teenagers should be getting 9-11 hours of sleep and Adults should be getting 6-8 hours of sleep

Younger ages need this time to develop, especially when they’re in the teenage stage. We’re a pain in the ass when we don’t get our sleep, but we’re also missing out on time to develop our mind and bodies.

Anyway, that’s all for day two. If you read this, thank you! This isn’t so much as a positivity thing as it as a informative thing, but people need to know.

See you all tomorrow, and with a dose of positivity, have a great day!

[golden-ways]

Thoughts on “Paper”: Artists

As an artist myself, I struggle with having confidence in my work. I often find myself thinking that my work isn’t good enough, that I haven’t improved, and I often compare to more experienced artists.

Sometimes, it’s just good to sit back and take a deep breath. Evaluate your art, fix what you can, and be proud of what you have so far accomplished.

 Maybe your shading needs some work, or you need to outline a lot thinner, or maybe it’s just a matter of using warmer skin tones. I promise, you’ll get there. As long as you have confidence and the will to practice and improve, you’re good to go!

Don’t be afraid of the whole trial and error thing. We don’t know what we’re good at before we try it. Use references! Trace some anatomy (and credit if you decide to full out use the base!)! Eyedrop some color schemes! It doesn’t make you an thief or a fraud or even a cheat, it’s just you trying to get the hang of things!

So, if you’re struggling in art like me. I promise you that you’re not bad at all. In fact, I think you’re the best artist ever. I don’t even need to see your work. I can just tell by the amount you’ve practiced!

[golden-ways]

Day One: It’s Okay!

Hello. My name is Connor. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, the potential reader. Perhaps you would like to keep it that way. Let our bygones be bygones. If that’s the case, I fully respect that. Not everyone finds it easy to communicate, and that’s very much okay.

I made this blog not just to inspire others to begin having a positive outlook on life, but for me to have that same outlook as well. I’m just like a lot of people my age. I’m depressed, full of anxiety, and overall just insecure. I don’t fit in at school and I can’t seem to find my sense of self. But, that’s okay. 

Life is going to have these rough patches we feel we can’t get ourselves out of. We all feel so deep in this ditch that we just decide to sit in the mud until it’s completely covered us up. Maybe it’s time for me, and a lot of you guys, to try and see the light.

I’m one of those people who want to get better, but don’t really know how. I have the pills, I have the therapy, and now I have the family support. But it just doesn’t seem like enough sometimes. And, like I’ve said before, that’s okay. Maybe it’s just a matter of not finding the right method yet, or maybe there’s still an irremovable trigger lingering in your daily life. Don’t ever let anyone convince you it’s because you don’t want to, or that you can. I may be just some random stranger on this website, but I believe that anyone, even you, can get better if they set their minds to it.

Nobody’s depressed on purpose, and nobody wants to be. Even if there are some of us who like to bathe in the attention we get from being depressed, we want to divert that into a positive energy, but it could be a case of being afraid to lose that attention. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. “Connor! Nobody is depressed for the attention, that’s not right of you to say!” Unfortunately, there are some people who have a hard time getting out of their depression because they’re afraid of losing the attention. I know countless people, including myself, who have this same mindset. If you’re in this mindset as well, just know you’re not an “attention whore” and you’re not alone with this.

Other mental illnesses contribute to this as well. ADHD, OCD, ODD, Bipolar Disorder, Binge Eating Disorders, Anorexia, Schizophrenia, etc. But, that’s okay too! Having these mental illnesses doesn’t make you a freak. It just means you’re faced with an extra challenge each day, and in the end you’re absolutely strong for facing it.

This isn’t all I’ll be encouraging myself to do. But in the meantime...

Hi. My name is Connor. I hope you’re willing to smile with me.