LWA Antics

Understanding the need for ‘buckling down’

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Whenever I return home from Lawrence Woodmere Academy there is always this persistent urge to turn on the television, computer, or just go on my cell phone instead of doing my schoolwork. This conflict between relaxing and being productive has been an uphill battle since I began getting homework in elementary school.

Since elementary school, relaxation has been an important activity to my family, and me yet there was always the rule “no play till the homework is done.” This rule has generally stuck with me and there has been no real problem with it until the start of high school — the time when a student must decide whether or not he or she wants to buckle down and excel or relax and coast through high school.

I choose the former path; I decided to buckle down and work hard. Of course, this path does not mean all work; there are days where I can just relax. It is not an impossible thing to just watch TV, or play games on the computer. However, those days are fewer and fewer in number, as I grow older. Work has become harder and more plentiful.

This is especially true this year, junior year, with the upcoming tests that decide my future. Those “three-letter tests,” the SAT and ACT, will be the most important tests of my high school career, and the situation is similar for many other students around the country. The preparation epitomizes how work gets harder and harder. I began studying in the beginning of sophomore year; I had two tutors one for math, and the other for English. It started out with small lessons, filling-in my gaps of knowledge, and small math and English sections to work on. Later, the work became more and more intense with practice SATs for homework and longer and longer vocabulary lists to memorize. All of this work is piled on top of regular school work with honors and Advanced Placement classes galore.

What I am trying to say is that, realistically, work increases as you get older, and work must be done if you want to go to a good college or be successful in any field of life. It is impossible, at least in high school, to sit down and just get good grades — you must study, prepare, and understand concepts. I cannot emphasize the importance of hard work, in words. As the old proverb goes: “anything worth having is worth working for.”