Thanksgiving is just around the corner if you’re hosting your first Thanksgiving here are a few ideas.

1. Make a plan– Get a paper and pencil out. Figure out the following things: How many people are attending? What are people allergic to? What am I going to prepare? 
2. Create a menu– When making your menu don’t choose over complicated dishes that take many days to prepare, choose dishes that are simple and easy to make. 
3. Accept help from family members and friends- Don’t refuse help. If someone offers to bring a beverage or a dessert, let them. Or if they want to help prepare the meal or help set the table, accept the help.
4. Buy your groceries ahead of time– Make a list of all the things you will need, and go to the grocery store ahead of time, so you don’t go in the store at the last minute having a meltdown. 
5. Set the table the night before– Don’t fuss with the table on the day of Thanksgiving. Sent it the night before, so you have time to prepare any last minute things.
6. Keep food warm– Use the oven if necessary so you can keep dishes warm, just don’t burn the food. 
7. Have fun– Thanksgiving is all about being with family. Being with family provides the opportunity for family members to spend a day engaging with one another, it’s also about being thankful for what you have. 

For information visit: https://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving

There are lots of things you can do to make sure school goes smoothly. You have to develop good habits that are helpful to your body and mind. If you continue to work hard and stay healthy you’ll be great! Making good decisions and preserving a healthy lifestyle is always good.

Now, the first thing you can do is drink lots of water. You have to have at least 64oz. Which is crazy, but it’s really good for you. Water is a great way to drain your body of unhealthy bacteria and keep your body ready for action. 

Eating healthy is pretty obvious. Avoid fatty foods and junk food because they don’t help your body. You should try to plan your meal instead of just throwing something together. 

Skipping a meal doesn’t help either. Don’t skip breakfast!! Breakfast is a great way to start your day. It boosts your metabolism and helps you not overeat during the rest of the day. Make something quick like a cereal bar or just a bowl of delicious cereal. 

Studying? Finishing homework? Make sure to take breaks! Work for as long as you can and once you feel antsy just walk around a little, do some lunges or stretch. Don’t go for another glass of coffee, move around. 

Is 11 o’clock too late? No, one more hour is fine. Not!! You need to sleep. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night is something to aim for. We all know math takes more than 10 minutes to finish most nights but you should try to go for it. Sleeping for a reasonable amount of time is 100% necessary. It puts you in a better mood 

Working on assignments at a decent hour is important too. You should strive to do it all once you get home, or while you’re eating a snack, or in free time in any of your classes. Just make sure your grades reflect your best work while keeping you in a good and healthy space. 

If you stay on a good schedule, and have a positive attitude, you will surely make it through high school happily. Stay positive!

A positive mindset isn’t something you can easily achieve in one day or overnight. It’s also not something that will stay constant. Every person has their ups and downs. With a better mindset, however, you’re bound to have more ups than downs. Or, you’ll be able to switch your downs to ups.

Always thinking positive can be hard sometimes. It’s something you sort of have to memorize in your brain. You train it to think happy when something bad in your life is happening. For example, when I’m stressed with school work I try not to get angry or frustrated because that won’t help me. Instead I think of ways to manage my time and I set goals for myself to finish the work. 

There is so much you can do to help grow your brain into a positive mindset. Starting your day off right is key. How you make up and spend your time in the morning could affect your whole mood for the day. Some good morning tips can be eating a good breakfast, getting in a light workout, meditation, or music you enjoy. Some people have their alarm set to songs they love so that the first thing they hear makes them happy.

In the morning it’s also nice to just takes a few minutes and meditate. You can sit and think about your daily goals and remind yourself how you’ll approach things and your day. 

There are a lot of things you can do during the day too. You can try to focus on the things that make/are making you happy. Do your best to not let little situations or things make you upset. Anything could switch up your mood. It’s always best to try to see the bright side of things or see them from a different perspective. During the day, it’s also a good goal to remember to smile, say “hi” to people, give compliments, and overall be nice.  

During the night, before you go to bed, is a great time to recap on your day. A good idea is to keep a journal of your thoughts, where you can share everything you’re feeling. Some ideas to help recap on your day is to share three new things you appreciate in your life everyday. You can also share three things that made you happy everyday, and explain one of your favorite moments of that day. Doing this can help you focus on the good things that happened instead of the bad. 

Everyone has their own ways of looking at things. People can have different ways of staying positive. These were just some tips and ideas on how you can go about your day. Doing this for one day may make you feel better for a short time. But doing things like this constantly will make you feel better for a long term.            

I’ll start this off with assuming most of you have ridden in a car before, but once you start to take your first steps into high school you’ll most likely find yourself riding in a car with a teenager.

Well, to save you from these haunted and terrorizing thoughts, I will write about some of the reasons why you should get your permit/license as soon as possible.This can also possibly be used as a motive, or something, to show your parents.

Firstly, having your license will help you with transport to school. Having your license and being able to drive yourself around will make it a lot easier on not just you, but also your parents trying to figure out a ride situation. This impacts greatly on families who have parents that go to work early and aren’t around to give kids rides to school, kids that don’t have a bus, kids that live far away, and kids with siblings.

Another great reason to get your license early is transport to after school sports, and activities. When your parent or guardian is not around to give you a ride to one of these after school priorities, it can become so much more complicated trying to find another last minute ride or carpool. With your license, you are able to get yourself to these places regardless if your parent is home or not.

Even though there are many more great reasons to get your license early such as getting to your job, having a car for emergencies, and showing manifestation of good citizenship, having your license is a great way for a teenager to symbolize independence and coming of age.

I hope these reasons help you find motivation to go get your license or permit, or also maybe help your convince your parents to let you.

Until my next article, I’ll leave you with this one.

October 31st is right around the corner. Lots of people have their decorations up and costumes ready.

Pass out treats. If you are the kind of person that finds pleasure in making others happy, this could be pretty fun for you. Not only can you stay inside during the cold October night, but you will be able to see all the little kids that come “trick-or-treating” by your house in their cute, and sometimes creepy, costumes.

Do the tricking. If there is anytime to scare someone, no doubt it should be on Halloween. There are always questionable decorations, weird setups, and a variety of costumes, and kids walking around looking for candy, all while it’s pitch black outside, so use this all against them to give them what they have been asking for all night. 

Watch scary movies. There is no shame for anybody on Halloween who choose to shut off all the lights in their house, make some popcorn, and watch a scary movie. If anything, this holiday is the best time to do it. There are countless numbers of Halloween-themed movies that could fill up your schedule for about the next year.

School can be a difficult place to go for five days every week and when the season of sickness comes around, it doesn’t get any easier. Here are a few tips to help you avoid getting sick, or a few precautions to follow to prevent others from catching viruses that travel around the school.

Get enough sleep. It has been scientifically proven by scientists and conducted experiments, that individuals who get more sleep are less likely to get sick from a simple cold or more complicated virus. But why? Nobody is exactly sure, but sleep, especially for about eight hours, offers a sort of protection from the day to day common cold lurking just about everywhere in a busy place like school.

Wash your hands. I think it is common knowledge that washing your hands is an important thing to do because it gets rid of the germs on your hands. But, making sure you wash your hands regularly, especially during the school months, is very important to avoid getting sick.

If you are at school when you are sick, take precautions to prevent contaminating other students. If you are sick you know how awful and fatigued you feel constantly for days on end. So, if you are sick, everybody, including your fellow peers and teachers, would appreciate it if you could cover your mouth when coughing, cover your nose when you sneeze, and throw away your own tissues. These minor actions could prevent others from catching the same sickness and save them the hassle of being a sick mess for a week or so.

Stay home if you are sick. Lastly, if you believe you should stay home because you are sick, then you most likely should. Nobody knows exactly how you feel, meaning you have the best opinion of the right solution for you. Also, missing one day of school is not going to ruin your whole school career. It would help everyone, including yourself, to rest for a day so you can come back feeling better.

A part of Highland’s course credit system says you are required to take a gym class. Gym class pushes you to your physical limits (not really), makes you a better athlete (most definitely not), but most of all it makes you sweat.

These are tips for boys to look, smell, feel, and be presentable for class after gym class.

Wear deodorant

This is probably the most crucial aspect to boys hygiene in any situation. Deodorants are used to kill odor-producing bacteria, while antiperspirants block sweat glands to keep you from sweating. Many products today contain both. In other words, it prevents you from sweating and smelling as much as you would if you weren’t wearing deodorant. Wear it. It’s just the right thing to do.

Extra shirt

When you sweat it obviously makes your skin wet, and when you’re wearing a t-shirt, all of your sweat gets soaked in your shirt till it sticks to your back. Having another (CLEAN) shirt in your backpack to change into after will make you feel way more comfortable, look better, and you won’t smell terrible. Also, it prevents you from getting back acne (bacne) in comparison to if you wore your sweaty shirt around all day. 

Sweatin’ Towel 

This step is not completely critical, but it can make your life just a little less sticky. Having a towel to wipe yourself off with before you put on your new shirt will make you drier and prevent old sweat from soaking into your new one. This will leave you with a completely dry shirt!

Shower supplies

If you’ve got the time, you could take a shower after gym class. Highland Park Senior High has showers in the boy’s locker room. You can bring body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and whatever other shower products you’d like. Then, bring a towel as well for afterwards so you can dry yourself off. This would be the most effective way out of all these steps for having the best hygiene in school.

I hope that these tips will help you look, smell, and feel cleaner and fresher after grueling gym class.

Until my next article, I’ll leave you with this one.

Now that we teens are getting older, we start to feel the need to have money. Our parents can only cover for so much of our impulse buys, so they stop buying them for us. They tell you that you need a job. A job, I know. Never in a million years did I think I’d hear that sentence so soon. To get a job, you need to apply for one.

Here are the common steps you’ll take to apply for a job.

1) Find local businesses that are hiring 

Go around your town, or city, and look for businesses that are hiring. Very often they will have a sign outside the store saying that they are hiring. You should be more interested in local businesses because they usually are more likely to hire you and pay more than corporate organizations. 

2) What you need

Besides a good attitude and a firm handshake, things that you legally need to bring when you’re going to apply for a job are: a form of ID (school ID, Gov ID), your social security card, and any other form of identification. Also, you need to be 16 years of age or older (usually).

3) Ask for an application

For most businesses, you can walk inside and ask any worker for an application. They will get you an application or direct you to where you can find one. Applications are normally a paper packet but at some corporate businesses they are online. On these applications you would fill out your personal information, and questions specific to the job. 

4) Ask for the manager

Once you are done filling out your application, ask an employee if his or her manager is available to talk to. If they say yes, their manager will come out and talk to you. Usually they ask about yourself, what hours you could work, if you’ve had jobs in the past, and usually general, easy to answer questions. Talking to the manager can set a very good first impression. If they are not available (very unlikely), it’s no big deal, it might just take longer to find out if you got the job or not.

5) Apply for more

Just like applying for college, you don’t just apply for one. It’s always good to apply for multiple jobs, therefore you have options and also a rebound if you don’t get the first job you applied for. It’s a little extra work, but it’s worth it if you want a job.

I hope that these steps will help you apply for jobs in the future.

Until my next article, I’ll leave you with this one.

By Charlotte Lane

Have you ever wondered why the flu shot is important? Or have you wondered if it even works? I sure have; why would I ever voluntarily get a SHOT!? 

My entire life I have gotten a flu shot but recently I have been curious as to why. 

The reasons I hear people say they don’t get the flu shot is because they don’t need it, they don’t believe it works, or they think it causes the flu. The truth is if you’re reading this article you should get a flu shot. 

Who me? I don’t need it. 

Actually, you probably do need it. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends everyone over the age of 6 months receive a flu shot annually.

Flu schmoo 

The CDC estimates that the flu shot reduces your risk of getting the flu by 40-60%. Even is you do end up getting the flu, if you got the shot, your symptoms with be significantly less painful.

But…I’m Healthy 

The last excuse people use for not getting the flu shot is they believe it will give you the flu. This isn’t the true. Despite rumors the flu shot is not a live virus, it is made up of dead viruses and cannot give you the flu.

I recommend this flu season you do yourself and your loved ones a favor, and take the shot.