Exams, Summer Jobs and Summer In That Order

Hey Peeps! So it seems like I have not posted an article in like foreva, but I had mock exams and so I had to study blah, blah, blah.

Exams

For those of us who are sitting CSEC and CAPE, um you realize that exams are less than a month away? Well if you did not realize I hope you do now.

What are you doing to prepare?
If you know me, I am a stickler for timetables and doing things so that they can just get out of the way so that I have a lot more time to enjoy myself – yes, sleeping is a very fun activity – wholly. Enjoy myself wholly meaning that I do not want to be sleeping and because I am stressed out from rushing to stuff a year’s worth of notes in my head, I start having a nightmare about going into the exam and seeing the paper and each time I try to write, no ink is flowing out of the pen because there is absolutely nothing in my head and I jump out of my sleeping gasping and drenched in sweat. No,no,avoid this at all costs.

Anyways, here are some tips that I hope you will find helpful.

1. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE
   Seriously , it seems like every teenager who is currently living in the 21^st century problem is procrastination, myself included. It is like they are putting something in our food or in our water that makes us lethargic, forgetful and downright lazy. This thing is killing us man. Sometimes procrastination does get the better of me but when it does not get the chance to, it is because I visualize in my head the results of my CAPE exam when I study vs when I do not study. So the next time you feel like procrastinating just try that. If that does not work, go one step further and visualize what happens when you do not study, get bad grades and cannot get into your programme of choice. If that does not work, imagine yourself on the street eating out of garbage bags, begging people, smelly and dirty with pieces of rags covering your privates. Sigh….. All of that could have been avoided, if you had just studied.
2. SET UP A TIMETABLE
   Yes my darlings, draw up a timetable/schedule and put everything that you do in a normal day on it. The first thing you should have on your schedule is the time you wake up, what you do when you wake up, what you do after that etc.
   For example ( this is if you are still attending school): if you wake up at 6am, you might have devotion until 6:30am (cannot leave God out of your day now)….school is from 8-3, clubs 3-5, home by 6, dinner/bathroom/chores(6-7:30), social media (7:30-8), study/homework(8-10). This is a rough sketch, you might have more things to do, parties to attend, tabletops to dance on, boyfriends/girlfriends to woo etc but the important thing is that you set up a timetable and stick to it.
   The two little things are all I live by. I try to follow these two steps as diligently as I can.

Last year for my exams, I was not feeling really hot about them, meaning that my drive to actually study and sit the exams just disappeared. I was in this particular exam, writing my answers and everything. I finished early, looked over, one of my answers could have been written more properly. However I was like cho and went to sleep. I did well enough though..sigh.
Moral of the study: Do not be like me. Motivate yourself, find your groove and go in the exams and give 150%

Summer Jobs

Now if you are in your advanced years of high school, I am sure somebody has told you about the importance of summer jobs and even if anyone has not, you must want likkle money in your pocket. If you are rich and do not want the aforementioned money, I am sorry madam/ sir, please skip this part and go on to summer, you will find something to cater to your predilections there.

Anyways, summer jobs are important as they help to add substance to your resumes. If you know anything about the process of looking a job, you know employers want persons who have 3-4 years experience, thereby excluding those of us who are just leaving high school and university. I mean come on, how can you expect growth and innovation in your company if you exclude the people coming with pure vigor and vitality and minds filled with fresh ideas? I hope they realize this sometime before the 22^nd century.

Sigh, wet your lips and continue to read along my dear. Apart from giving you much needed experience, summer jobs also provide the money-o. So it would be a good time for you to start looking for summer jobs now.
Ask friends and family member if their workplace provides summer job opportunities.
Make use of as we Jamaicans say, any links you have. It is sad to say but it is hard to land a job if you do not have links. I use to be very angry about this part but I learned in business class that, “it is not links my dear but networking.” So when you have family, members, family friends, associates and acquaintances that might can set you up with a lil sumn sumn, take advantage of it. Remember that they are not your links but members of your network.

Summer

Last but not least, enjoy your summer. Even though you might have work, use the weekends to go out with friends. Enjoy the beach, go a river, you live in Jamaica and people pay thousands of dollars to come here and enjoy what you have in your backyard. In 2016 I am ashamed to say but I think I only went to the beach once for the whole year. Sad, I know.

I want you all to enjoy your summer because when school starts in September, it will come with a truckload of stress and if you bring over old stress into the new school year and then add new stress on it, you might have a nervous breakdown. So get out those bath suites, your sunscreen (yes, black people should protect their skin too) and go and sip a pina colada on the beach. Make sure it is non-alcoholic if you are under 18.

Yes my peeps. That is it for this blog post. I leave you with this quote:

“Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.” -Unknown

See yah on my next post.

Oh and you can tell me how the studying is going on and your plans for summer in the comments.