High school is a time where memories are made, good and bad. The good ones are the ones we want to remember, but how do we keep ourselves from remembering the bad ones? The answer is simple; positive energy. Using positive energy can help us have a different mindset on school as well as life itself, and will allow us to enjoy the good moments and turn the negative ones into positive ones

Stress seems to be very common during high school. While it is normal to feel stressed at times, it isn’t good overall to feel stressed every day. New York University did a study on students and the amount of stress they have throughout their high school career. Unsurprisingly, the results came back with 31 percent of students feeling somewhat stressed while almost half of students felt stressed on a daily basis. The contributors to stress happen to be the most obvious; getting good grades, doing homework and preparing for college. Due to stress, good memories from high school can be replaced by ones that deal with feeling pressured. This is where positive energy comes in. By having a positive attitude on school, it will enable us to have a decrease in stress while still succeeding in school.

Another leading factor that creates bad memories in school is being judged by others. Not only in high school, but in life as well, we are judged on a daily basis. Whether it’s on our clothes, personality or even our body, we are judged. There’s something uneasy about having people watch your every move and commenting on everything you do. Being judged changes the way we view ourselves as well. We second-guess what we wear and how we act in order to “fit in” and to “blend in” with the crowd. When having the sense of judgment on our shoulders, we want to figure out how to get it off. This can be done by using positive energy. In this case, the positivity we need is confidence. Feeling confident in ourselves and everything we do will help minimize the feeling of judgemental eyes. While we can’t stop others from judging us, we can make ourselves feel better about it.

For some reason, the typical life of a high schooler involves drama. Drama, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces.” Drama tends to appear often in the four years of high school that we have, yet it also tends to be unnecessary and unwanted. Dealing with the drama is more of a problem than how it started, and usually when someone tries to deal with it, it becomes even worse. The problem is not us, however, it is how we approach it. If you try to settle down two people fighting by also fighting, you will only add to the fight. Using positive energy and confronting the problem head on in a calm manner will not only settle down the problem, but it can keep it from happening again.

Positive energy should be used throughout school to help deal with stress, judgement, and drama. It protects our good high school memories from becoming bad ones and gives us a different perspective on life. Throughout the year, we will be looking at different areas in high school where we can all be a bit more positive to help improve the years to come. Being positive will not only change our lives, but the lives of others we encounter. Stay positive and remember:

“Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.”-Unknown