We finally made it to Thanksgiving break! Yay!

It has come to my attention that I don't post much, but so far, I've only posted on this blog once a month. I intended for it to be more frequently, but unfortunately, it didn't happen, and I didn't even realize it was that bad until a student during one of my tutorial periods had asked me when I was going to update my blog. That's when I realized "Oh wow, I don't post as often as I'd like", and the reason is because I have lots of homework to do, and I never actually have a lot of time to do other things like write on this blog, because that time is taken up either on social media, homework, or just doing random stuff other than this. But rest assured, I'll always know that I have this blog, and I'm always thinking about what to write on it. But man, it was a pretty busy and interesting few weeks.

I'm proud to announce that apparently I've built up a great and positive reputation among basically everyone at CHECHS, and as of right now, it seems to only be getting better and better. I'm realizing that more as I make more friends. Now I'm interacting with tons of different people, and not just dominant to a friend group of only a few people. That positive reputation was really evident when I had the unfortunate situation of being absent on Thursday. I don't know what in the world their reactions were, but I'm sure everyone was very surprised that I was gone, and wanted me back there ASAP. Especially considering that I do a lot for this school... I'm a funny person who just tries to have fun when I can, I'm one of the student helpers for the printer room (speedy printer computers needed, anyone? I even wrote instructions for how to use the computers), I write the Quote of the Day that I get from a website for the freshman in the English I teacher's classroom, and more. You can even ask for the time when I'm nearby, and if I hear it, I'll announce to time to whoever I think said it. I get that request on a regular basis. The WHAP teacher was even jokingly telling me that since I wasn't here that day, they decided to cancel their test because of that reason, and they just sat in the room quietly for the next hour and 20 minutes... but of course, since I said he was joking, it didn't happen. But yeah, normally only a few people would care if you show up or not, but when it comes to me (and I always want to be here whenever I can), all of a sudden there's a change in the Force... as if there's no me, there's no one bringing positivity to this school, and there won't be a pretend car around! But I came back Friday, and was welcomed to quite a few people who noticed I was gone and cared about me. Someone even asked me if I was feeling better, and I replied, "Yep. Or, at least, I'm getting there." That person knew I had been sick probably because I had posted on Twitter that I wouldn't be here Thursday because I was sick, and she saw that and noticed it. If you're someone who cares about me, thank you so much. You're a positive influence in my life and mean so much to me.

Sounds like the teachers and principals finally have the volume of the freshman under control... as now they're in their classrooms a few minutes before class starts, and the hallways haven't been as loud as they were the beginning of this year. Some of the freshman still seem to act a little wild at times, though, which is unfortunate, as this school was intended for responsible students, and not for those who are clearly immature and may as well be in a regular high school. (If you're one of those responsible freshman, please don't think I'm targeting you, as I'm not... I actually know some of you as friends. I'm mainly talking about the boys. It's always the boys who are immature.)

But as of right now, it's not all about the problems I see with this school (and they're tolerable problems, thankfully) and me being an important student... I heard some news I actually wasn't willing to hear until after I stop riding the bus, especially on a daily basis. On the Clear Springs Horizons route, I've heard our current bus driver might be becoming a sub bus driver in the near future... it's either that or she might get her own route (which'll be a different one)... and that's about as far as I remember in that matter. But either way, she's eventually going to be leaving us, and it's just a matter of when. We don't know that factor at all. It was sad news for the driver, and so was the students who ride our bus. Our driver's been driving this route for nine years (basically since Clear Horizons started), and I don't think she wanted to stop doing this route for as long as she's a driver. Since we were known as bus riders who are very nice and respectful, we were thanked for being that kind of rider, and hopes that we'll give the same respect to the new bus driver when he/she does get this route. This new driver could get this route as early as after Thanksgiving, but I hope it doesn't happen that early. Our current bus driver's really nice, typically gets us to Horizons pretty fast, and knows me really well as a rider who sits up front. There are a few instances where I've helped her, like when she tells me to remind her not to take a particular road that's busy, and when we're running late, I get what intermediate bus routes need to wait for us. I've done this for about a year and a half so far, and I hope this new driver will be as nice as she was. I really hope I can make good friends with the new bus driver. I've done it with everyone I've ridden with more than a few times, so maybe I can do it with the new driver as well! We'll have to see, but I know when we get this new driver (assuming we get to ride the same bus), our bus will not feel the same way as it did when I started riding.

We still made it to Thanksgiving break, however! I'm proud we did, actually! The only odd things I see about it, though, is that there are those teachers who give homework over the break... like, really? You expect us to do work over a break that is supposed to be relaxing? I can't stress that enough. Another odd thing about the break that is exclusive to Clear Horizons is that the college doesn't have break on Monday and Tuesday, so you have to arrange your own transportation there just to attend only your college classes! I know, the College is no fun... but at least CCISD got it right when they were thinking of how long the breaks are supposed to be.

That's all I have for now... Have an awesome Thanksgiving break! I'll miss y'all! :)

CHECHS seems to have been busy this October! We're still busy; PSAT tomorrow for grades 9-11!

Sorry that I haven't posted on a consistent basis. I had thought about attempting to post daily, but after realizing that's too much to ask, I then thought about attempting to post weekly, but I also haven't had time for that, due to me wanting to do certain other fun things but never actually do, and my (and probably lots of others) seemingly natural trait of procrastination (that means putting things off until the last minute. Some of us are good at it, some of us not.) Anyway, sorry for the inconsistency, but just know that I'm thinking of you guys and that even though it may not seem obvious when you normally talk to me, I'll eventually be thinking of something new to put on this blog.

With that being said, let's get to this post, because why not? It's what you came here for!

Yes, CHECHS seems to have been busy for quite a while now. It's a pretty popular belief among high school students in the district who don't go to Clear Horizons. Apart from being busy, as I start doing things at CHECHS sophomore style, I end up visiting freshman teachers quite often, and so do others. The reason why we visit them is because the freshman teachers have been so amazing, especially last year. I still remember being a freshman, and am now seeing once again some of the assignments and projects the class of 2019 had to do last year (like the Socratic Seminars in Human Geo & English I, the Cell Tweet project in Biology, etc.), and that's partially bringing me back to the memories of being a freshman in high school. But, now I'm a sophomore, and I'll tell you right now, things have CHANGED since last year... mainly not who the friendly staff is, but rather the classes you have, the paths you take to your classes, and the difficulty of your college classes. Taking all of that into account amounts to a huge difference. I haven't EVER seen two days play exactly the same way.

For me, life as a sophomore student has generally been amazing since I started. I'm not a freshman anymore, and that means no more being stuck in the BQR during lunch and having to check-in - you can roam freely around the approved places by CHECHS on campus. Whenever I have free time during lunch (when I'm finished eating), I always find myself roaming around somewhere on the campus. Just the past few days, I've been taking quite a few different paths and ended up quite a few different places, some of them unfamiliar. Yes, you read that correctly - I've been exploring SJC's South Campus, because why not? I can't be bothered to do any more than I have to at school, so why not take the free time I have when I'm not under stress to go explore something? I'm sure that may be rebellious, but really, who cares nowadays? I'm a responsible kid - I'm not as bad as those who seem to be flipping water bottles everywhere for a living, nor am I as bad as the LOUD freshman.

Speaking of water bottle flipping... Yes, I know it's been a trend on social media for quite a while now, and it was a cool challenge the first few days it was going on. But this is November now, and apparently people are STILL trying to flip water bottles. Unfortunately, I can't really take the constant noise and distraction of someone flipping a water bottle anymore, and have been that way for a few weeks now. It's so bad, it's gotten to the point that every time I see someone flipping a bottle, and I see an opportunity to get that water bottle they missed because it fell on the floor, I'm taking it and eventually throwing it away. Sure, they can be mad at me all they want - but now it's just irresponsible behavior when you do it in the classroom. Also, when we were getting free donuts and water bottles for Student Appreciation last Friday, I told everyone in the same room I was in that if they were going to get a water bottle, to NOT get one if you're going to be flipping it, as I've had it. I ended up saying that right in front of Dr. Lemley, our principal at CHECHS, and he praised me for saying that, as we both agree that's now irresponsible behavior.

And the volume of the freshman? Don't even get me started on that topic, please... I don't know WHAT in the world has gotten into them, but the freshman seem to have overall gotten louder and a lot wilder than how I've seen it when the class of 2019 were freshman. It seems to have only been happening after lunch, so maybe they're pretty hyped up with lots of energy because they can't really roam around the campus. I totally understand that, but the volume nowadays has been getting a little loud and unreasonable. Not only that, but they're wilder than the sophomores! Like, what is CHECHS?! I thought it was a school of responsible, grown-up students in all grade levels (including freshman), not some irresponsibly loud people like the freshman! A few of the sophomores are a victim of this, but they're not as bad as freshman. Even a sophomore teacher agreed with me that freshman are annoying. Sorry freshman, but you saw that coming. We typically hate y'all when we're not in your level. But that DOESN'T MEAN I'm not friends with any of them; in fact, I have quite a few sophomore friends, some of which I made in Geometry class. I'm also friends with a few juniors, and a few seniors.

Sorry if those last two paragraphs sounded like a rant, but I've seen and heard both of those things happening, and I HAD to get that off my mind. Now y'all know why I've been so bothered by a few of you lately. But, I still like the school either way! If it means graduating with a 2-year degree, I'm up for it! I'm having a lot of fun in the process, too! Thanks to the CHECHS teachers and students for being who you are! Keep it up!

And if you don't think you're learning something new every day, think again. You really are learning something new every day, whether it be something you realize at school, something about your friends, about your computer, etc. I'm only saying this because the geometry teacher eventually made me realize that.

The whole reason we've been busy is because since I last posted, we've done 9-weeks tests, more general work up until Halloween, then we did Halloween-themed stuff, like me giving out candy in a costume at my own house (I posted on Instagram at that time), and then now. We're actually about to take a PSAT, and that's tomorrow for grades 9-11. What's a PSAT, you ask? It's a CollegeBoard standardized test cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) in the United States. Unfortunately, the PSAT is not something you can study for, but you'll just have to try your best. It's a test designed for juniors, so don't expect to do great on it, especially on the mathematics portion. Normally, in a regular high school, you'd have to pay for this, but at CHECHS, it's free and is a test grades 9-11 will have to take. What test the seniors take, I don't know as of the time I wrote this (someone actually asked me that today). I'll have to ask or look it up locally. But good luck to those taking it!

I know I've just written a post that's probably pretty large, but it's not just a post. It's a special post written by me and my brain using a laptop. The most important part is that it's written by me... xD
Everybody knows me nowadays... I'm the one that frequently acts like a car. And I've had my share of fun at CHECHS. I hope to have many more exciting days at this special early college high school named Clear Horizons! (It's even more fun, as I'm FINALLY learning more names of people I know!)

That's all for now, I guess. See y'all later!

Service Learning Field Trips? They aren't so bad...

The freshman and sophomores went on their Service Learning field trip today. The freshman went to the Houston Food Bank, and the sophomores to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. I'm sure some of the students enjoyed this trip.

Since I was a sophomore, I was going to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. I thought I was going to be in for a walk through very tall prairie grass (just like the teachers had been trying to indicate to us), but NO! It was totally different than what I had been expecting! (OK, not totally different, but we were still outside.) Here's a breakdown of what we did...

When we arrived, because we were told that there were no bathrooms where we're going to be doing our service learning, we were told to go before going out there. When that was finished, we were given safety instructions for when we go out in the fields, as we were told that there are going to be bugs out there. We then started about a 15-minute walk from where we arrived to the fields.

When we arrived at the fields, we were given instructions on what to do, although I was half expecting to have to walk through at least some prairie grass during this trip. But no, it turns out they just need us to dig and plant some... well, plants. After all, we do need to preserve this habitat! (Did you know that in our state, 99% of those prairies are gone? I know... Crazy, right?)

Of course, we keep working and working. We dig holes, and then plant our plant naturally, then cover the dirt on the plant back up with more soil/dirt. Every now and then, we would take water breaks, because when you're out there during the summer months, it gets HOT. It gets so hot, you'll be sweating after working for a while. Actually, this trip temporarily knocked out a few people due to being sick and nauseous (my guess is because of heat exhaustion.) Of course, it ends up happening with my friends, while basically everyone else is OK. (Funny how that works.) 

That situation even happened with the partner I was working with while I was on this trip. It only took a little bit of time before our work speed suddenly started to go slower, and needing a few more water breaks, until eventually, my partner experiences a version of tunnel vision where everything just gets darker. Because of this, she had to sit down and recover for a minute (and so did I, because I needed to sit down. I've stood up way too long. I also wanted to assist her if she needed anything.) 

That's how I noticed that the regular honeybees around here have been WALKING on the ground, and not flying. I asked a person why, and I heard that they may have been drugged. When I asked him if it was happening just around here or if it was nationally, he responded "nationally". That doesn't sound good. We already have a hurricane coming through some of Florida (and destroyed some places in other countries nearby) - now we have honeybees becoming an endangered species? Man, the world is now a crazy place where no one is safe!

Oh, and her tunnel vision eventually did go away, but it didn't take long before she almost completely stopped responding (yes, we took a water break when she had that tunnel vision). She wouldn't want to move anymore, so I (and another group) keep asking "Jade, are you OK??" After hearing from her that she was sick and sleepy (both in a nauseous way), one of us alerted a teacher, who then came to assist (along with another teacher.) After letting her cool down, she was taken for a ride back in the ATV they had out there, along with a few other people. Thank God it happened last-minute (I know because we were starting to pack up), otherwise we would've had to do some serious planning (possibly to even get in a decent group.)

So, long story short, even though it was warm outside (we had to wear long pants, too), and a few people being unable to handle working after a while, it was a good field trip filled with planting things, insect repellent, and for some, sunscreen. I actually got sunburned on my arms, and apparently some of my face (although somewhat minimal, as I was wearing a hat AND sunglasses today.) But on the bright side, everyone who made it to the field trip today should've gotten 4 service learning hours, even though we were only out there for about 1.5 hours! Yay!

That's all I have for now. Sorry I haven't been posting recently, guys. I haven't had the time I wanted to keep this thing up to date, but rest assured I'm still somewhat motivated to put new posts for you guys, even more now that I've noticed that someone spread the word that this blog exists... don't believe me, look at this pageview chart...

I know, right? 36 pageviews yesterday compared to something like 3 pageviews/day from unknown sources?! That's crazy! Whoever spread the word to CHECHS that this blog's link was on my Instagram bio, thank you! I feel so much more popular now.

See y'all later!

P.S. Don't abuse the comment section, please.. If you do, I do have the right to delete your comment. I almost decided not to allow anonymous users to comment anymore after one long comment about rambling (that person typed 759 words & 3,859 characters in one sentence. Has he ever heard of run-on sentences? We learned this way too long ago in Language Arts.) But, since I realized that's probably too harsh, I didn't do that. (I liked his reasoning anyway.) And plus, I had an innocent anonymous user who told me with perfect grammar that I had a great blog, so I didn't want to block out the nice people. (See, I'm a nice guy!) I try to be nice, but then some mean person has to ruin it for everyone else. (When it comes to that kind of thing, I hate the way the world works.)

Interesting sophomore year went well

The happier thing about Fridays at Clear Horizons is that you get out of school earlier than the normal dismissal time (which is usually at 3:20 PM). OK, that's a well-known perk around here, but still... it's a great one. We need that earlier dismissal every Friday because we work so hard at that school compared to other high schools. And an early dismissal means getting home early, so why not take the time to enjoy that extra time? I know I probably would.

I've already posted a few times on some interesting stories I had this sophomore year. Well, once again, I have yet another interesting story. And of course, it happens to deal with the buses. On our way to the school on Friday, we get stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. While we're trying to get through that traffic jam, our bus engine quit working, which meant we had to pull off to the shoulder and wait for help to arrive. Or, at least, we thought we were going to have to wait, because 15 minutes later, we start the bus and was able to pull off the highway and into a nearby gas station. If we didn't try to pull off the highway, we would've had to exit through the back door (something we apparently never practiced in CCISD). I'm very glad we didn't have to do that, though. It took about 25 minutes, from beginning to end, for this whole situation to get resolved and head back on the road in another bus. And they were going to have a cop show up to block traffic so the bus evacuation would be safer, too - but we never had to deal with any of that. Thank goodness.

If you read all my interesting stories, and when you consider them all, you'll probably understand me when I say that sophomore year could not get more interesting than this (or, at least, for me). And I'm also glad that sophomore year has still not tried to split me into pieces due to rage after a week of school. I say this because I know they say sophomore year is your hardest year. I can see why.

Anyway, good luck out there to all students, especially for my friends and those in their sophomore year!

Interesting good week of sophomore year + blog name & link change

OK, if you're a CHECHS student, you know this has probably been said many times before - we're not having any classes tomorrow (which is Friday) - we really just have a very long advisory period (as we wait to pick up our college textbooks) and the fall social, which basically means a lazy school day to most people! (Yay!) Besides that, I've got to say... I think I've had a very interesting sophomore year so far. In my case, it's mainly with either the bus ride or the technology people.

When it comes to the buses, almost every day this week so far has had an interesting moment this week. The first day got its very own post with its very own story (and we were very late getting back home that day). The second day was business as usual (nothing interesting there). The third day, however, our neighborhood bus driver in the morning found a way to dodge traffic at a light, part of which involve going straight through the light, backing up elsewhere, and turning right from the other side of the light. That's also when I heard that my Horizons bus driver was going to start assigning seats - but she'd let us choose our seats, and to start getting in the habit of sitting in the same spot every day so we'd be used to it. How nice of her to do this!

On the fourth day, we had a little situation with our morning neighborhood bus. As we leave our last stop and get up to speed in the neighborhood, the bus driver's "No Students On Board" sign fell out of the bus driver's window and into the road. (Oh no!) So, the driver had to back up the bus about 100 feet or so to get the sign back, and ended up blocking someone's driveway (unfortunately, they wanted out at the time, so she had to wait. The driver of the car seemed to understand.) After that situation was settled, all was well and normal after that.

And I want to tell you a little story about the school laptops and the interesting part about that day (which was also on the fourth day). So, on the second day of school, I turned my old laptop in to the tech because it wouldn't boot. Was told to come back on Thursday, so I was totally cool with that. Sure enough, I come back on Thursday, and my laptop's ready for me! And it turns out it's not the laptop I was expecting. Sure, it was the same model, but it felt totally different AND it was running Windows 10, not 8.1. I learned that as soon as I saw the Windows 10 loading logon screen when I powered it on. Turns out I had gotten a BRAND NEW laptop from CCISD (thanks so much for that laptop, CCISD! I really love it!), which is great, because hopefully the newer version will be more reliable! Speaking of reliable, I feel like attempting to compare the two laptops in terms of hardware, so here goes... Both models are Dell Latitude 3150, if you were curious on what the District-provided student laptops were.

The older, 2015 version had an Intel Pentium N3540 @ 2.16GHz, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB 7200RPM HDD. (Yes, they had an actual hard drive in there. Not the best when it comes to rough handling, but it still works for many students, because most of them still have this version.)

The newer, 2016 version has the exact same processor (Intel Pentium N3540), exact same amount of RAM (4GB), and a smaller (but faster) 128GB SSD. Yes, it's a solid-state drive with no moving parts, which means the newer version is almost silent, in addition to having a possible increase in reliability.

The only main software difference is that the older version runs Windows 8.1, while the newer version runs Windows 10. Other than that, the laptop models are basically the same!

So that's the end of the interesting story of my good week of sophomore year. I do want to say something about this blog, though... so keep reading. I decided to change the name of this blog from "CHECHS Survival Guide" to "CHECHS Life" and the blog link from chechssurvivalguide.blogspot.com to chechslife.blogspot.com . The reason? It makes a lot more sense to have it named to "CHECHS Life" (or at least, to me). Besides, this whole thing was still a work in progress, so... yeah. Students, good luck out there! See ya later!

First day of Sophomore Year - So Far, So Good... and Interesting!

Wow. I didn't think I was going to have this interesting of a time when it's the first day of school. Yes, your routine is different and a lot more organized than from how it was during the summer, but we all know that's only temporary. Now that we're back to organized routines and the first day of school has passed by, it's only a matter of time before you start actually getting used to it.

When the first day of school arrives, we probably all think that our teachers will not even try to give us homework on the first day of school. If you think that, I'd say think again. You're forgetting that once you're in the course for the first day, your teachers are probably going to hand you a syllabus for the class. And more than likely, you and/or your parents will need to sign that syllabus, along with all the other things the school wants you and the parents to sign, like the bus cards for the Transportation Department and such.

And, on top of ALL of that, some teachers just happen to be mean enough to assign homework before you leave that class on the first day of school. Man, talk about a seemingly tedious start of a student's school year! (Unfortunately, as time goes by, and when we start seeing finals mentioned at schools and colleges, the difficulty will only get worse.)

If you want to ask how my first day went in person, I'd probably end up just saying "It went well!" and then asking them the same thing. I've noticed people don't really like to stick around for stories when they just wanted the answer to a simple question, so I just end up keeping it short, even though it's likely I got a lot more details about how my day ACTUALLY went. But here, since I mentioned it, I'll give you a rundown of what happened today that made this first day quite interesting.

What makes a first day of high school quite interesting, you ask? Well, I'm glad you did! You see, when we got to school, and when we starting getting information about the classes we were going to be taking IN our classes, by the time the clock struck 11:15 AM, the power to all of San Jac South went out for a solid 20 seconds, then went back on. The reason why that happened? It was really stormy out there at the time. Classes were completely normal after that, although a little bit of commotion about the power going out was heard at that time. If you think that's all there is, keep reading, because there's a lot more to this entire story.

When we were actually dismissed for the day at our regular dismissal time, 3:20 PM, that's when the interesting parts really do get interesting. And I thought I was just in for a normal commute back to Victory Lakes Intermediate, and then back home. But nope, it turns out I was in for a HUGE ride back home. As soon as we left CHECHS (later than usual, as it was the first day and we left at 3:29 PM instead of 3:25 PM), we find there's really heavy traffic on Beamer Rd, so we took an alternate way with intent on heading on to I-45. But we didn't get very far... before all of a sudden, the radio needs Route 119 (which, by the way, is the Horizons bus for Clear Springs). As soon as I overheard that we needed to go BACK to CHECHS, my mind was like "Oh, no...", and so was the passenger next to me. Even another CCISD bus was wondering what was going on, as they pulled right next to us (blocking 2 lanes of traffic in the process).

As we head back, it turns out they want us to take some students to Brookside Intermediate. We originally were asked to take some students to both Clear Lake Intermediate AND Brookside Intermediate, but when the students started coming out to board the bus, it turns out we had a LOT more students than even I was expecting. Not only was the bus was almost full of people sitting 2 to a seat, but more students would have to board our bus either way. So, she had to stop the students coming in the bus and quickly come up with a plan. Needless to say, we were all very surprised about this even happening. After some thinking (and being ignored when she tried to call Base to report the overcrowding issue), we eventually decided we could take all of the Brookside Intermediate students. So we did just that. By the time the bus finished loading, pretty much everyone was sitting 3 to a seat. Not a comfortable way to ride a school bus, but if we have to, we have to. It still works.

Finally, after all that trouble, and leaving at 3:42 PM, we still go the way we originally planned (the non-Beamer way). Due to all the heavy traffic everywhere, it took us quite a while to even get to Brookside, which means we have to tell a few bus routes to wait - both at Victory Lakes AND Creekside. Because I'm so cool to be sitting at the front of the bus (and knowing that I was a really good bus rider last year), I got the HUGE honor of helping my bus driver with writing down what bus routes need to wait for the Horizons bus. So I did. And believe it or not, the results were just what I expected - only a few buses had to wait, while pretty much the rest of them got to go on their way.

We arrive at Creekside at about 4:15 PM. No interesting stuff there, just dropping off passengers. But it's not the same when we depart, however. When we did depart, a totally different intermediate student who knew Route 119 was with Creekside last year and stood RIGHT by the door, with his friends watching. The bus driver just drove away safely, with the kids laughing about the fact that he just got denied by a bus driver! (Of course he would, he doesn't need to ride! It's not his route anymore!)

We then (finally) arrive at Victory Lakes at 4:34 PM. Apparently a student on the bus who knew me and rode the same neighborhood intermediate bus as I did tried to catch my attention, but I didn't hear him. Since I actually wanted to get back home today, and there was absolutely no time, I rushed. It turns out he wanted to follow me to the intermediate bus I ride (because I know he rides the same bus I do - all three of them). If I had heard him, I likely would've stopped and let him follow me.

So we got on the intermediate bus, and the really interesting part ends there, apart from the intermediate bus having a sign telling our students the bus is not a Pokemon zone and it will NOT stop in order to attempt for a student to catch an imaginary creature, as they don't exist in reality.

So that's my story of how my first day of sophomore year went. Sounds interesting, but I know it's probably not going to be like that tomorrow. That was just too interesting for a possibility of this happening again. Because as we all probably would've guessed by now, no two commutes are the same when it comes to being on the road. Ever.

Oh, and did I mention I got to see pretty much all my best friends at my neighborhood high school ON the first day? That must've been pure luck right there, or great planning on their part (because of course, I wasn't involved in that discussion.)

Have a great day and good luck to all students who read this blog!

School starts soon! Tips for getting ready for the first day of school

Well, hello there! As we all know, school is just around the corner! For Clear Creek ISD, school starts on August 22 (which is the day after the next), which means we'll be saying goodbye to all those summer moments we've had this year - whether it be Schlitterbahn, going on bike rides, going on vacation, or even just staying home and chilling! Most of us also didn't have to worry about schoolwork over the summer (unless you happened to take summer school). But unfortunately, all of that's ending soon.

Since summer's ending, and school is about to start for the year, here are a few tips on *hopefully* getting ready for school to start on the first day.

• Get a good night's sleep before the first day of school. This tip can't be stressed enough. Some people don't listen and start trying to adjust their sleep schedule the day BEFORE school starts. That won't work well, as you will probably feel tired when you wake up to your alarm. If you're unlucky enough to fall back asleep and you turned off your alarm completely, you're probably going to be late the first day if you don't have parents waking you up in time. Not a good thing to have happen to you, so... please, start adjusting your sleep schedule well before school starts (I started my normal sleep schedule a week before school starts. Should work well enough.) Oh, and when you adjust your sleep schedule, be sure to go to bed at a regular weekday bedtime. Disregard all of this on the weekend, as you want to get a feel for the routine.
• Come to school PREPARED. Seriously. Even though high schools might not provide school supply lists until you get to your classes, you will still do yourself a huge favor by coming to school prepared. At the very list, bring some pencils, pens, notebooks, and other obviously necessary school supplies. I wouldn't waste time going to the store to buy binders until after you get more information on what size binder you need for a particular class. The reason why I say this is because you risk buying the wrong size binder, and will then have to go to the store again to buy the right size binder. So basically, come to school prepared, but not too prepared.
• Try not to be one of the "distracted" students. Yes, I know it seems tempting to bust out your phone and check your social media and/or play Pokemon Go during school hours, but don't do it. You risk getting your device taken up when you do this. And getting your device taken up will not leave a good feeling for you. If it gets taken up in a Clear Creek ISD school, you'll have to come to their office later and pay a $15 fee to get it back. Probably not worth it for being impatient with everything that's happening on your phone. And yes, we've all done it before. Some of them never had their devices taken up, while others have gotten theirs taken up several times. Guess it just depends on the person and/or their skill level in hiding their evidence of being a distracted student. At least most of them still take notes and get good grades.
• If you're new to a school, try to ask for directions between classes! When you set foot in a new school, you're going to get lost if you don't know where your classes are. If you don't ask, you're going to be late to your class (although they usually let it go on the first couple days, as they understand being lost). Even then, you should still ask for directions. Once you know the path between your classes, getting between your classes during passing periods should be easier. At that point, you can start attempting to find shortcuts if you need to or want to. If you try that and the shortcut doesn't work out, you should obviously stop taking it before it starts causing problems.
• Have fun in school (without being trouble!) School's that much more tolerable if you find friends and talk with them throughout the day (although don't cause trouble in the process!) Besides, friendships are very important in life! It's good to have friends involved in your life! Sure, there will be disagreements with some of your friends at some times in your life, but don't stress out about it if you can! Just have fun in school when you can, because again, school will be that much more enjoyable if you do this!

So those are my tips for getting ready for school to start on the first day! Take them to good use! You'll be thankful for those tips later during your career in school!

Surviving at Clear Horizons - Tips and Tricks (What to Do & What NOT to Do on Campus)

Hello to my visitors! Sorry it took me so long to actually write this post. The reason why was because the computer I wanted to write my blog with started getting crashing problems. In addition to that, other stuff revolving around my life end up taking up my day, barely leaving any time to write on this blog. But whether it's computer problems or just laziness, I finally got around to finishing up this post. Anyway, here's the post...

The previous post talked about the routine we have at Clear Horizons. Now it's time to learn about some tips and tricks on what to do and what not to do at Clear Horizons! (Remember, some of this also applies to ALL high school students.) So without further ado, here's some of those tips and tricks!

• As much as academics are stressed in an early college high school, you are NOT limited to just academics. I've seen it countless times... people will socialize during school hours whenever they can. Even I've managed to socialize during the school day sometimes, and that's a good thing, because without socialization, you can quite possibly become depressed & stressed, in addition to other negative things that will happen to you. I've done quite a bit of socialization in this school, and STILL walked away in my freshman year with a report card that has mostly B's. So go ahead, don't be afraid to socialize a little bit at school! You'll thank yourself for it.

• This one should've been obvious, and I admit, we've all been victims of this one at least once (myself included); some of us on a pretty routine basis. That tip is... DON'T PROCRASTINATE! Procrastination, for those of you who happen to not know what it means, is waiting until the last minute to complete anything. It's mainly used in the academic world when you wait until the last minute to complete a project, assignment, etc. Don't procrastinate, because it means making it harder and more stressful on yourself. When you procrastinate, you also take the risk of not having enough time to get something done, all because you thought it would only take a certain amount of time. There's also the unavoidable chance that something will not work while you attempt to rush on getting your work done. If something breaks while you end up procrastinating (I'll use a computer as an example), and you either didn't save your work OR you don't have another computer to work on, you're basically screwed, right? Yep. You never want that to happen, especially if it's a project for a class you're working on, as that project is more than likely a major grade, and your grade for the class is likely going to be sabotaged... all because you decided to procrastinate. Usually, it can only take one HORRIBLE grade to bring your average down significantly (especially if it's major grade). So don't do it - otherwise you run the risk of this entire situation just described happening to you.

• Another obvious thing you shouldn't be doing, even though we all have probably done it at least once... DO NOT CHEAT. EVER. Someone at Clear Horizons actually tried that stunt during the 2015-2016 school year and got busted for it. He ALMOST, and I'm being serious here - ALMOST got their permanent record sabotaged, and that was likely only because the teachers there were pretty nice (and he was one of the awesome students too). Thank goodness the entire situation ended up being in a high school class... if it was in a college class, it would've been a totally different story (and probably a lot more horrible). Long story short, no matter what you're thinking, just don't cheat. If you get busted, you're gonna get written up for it. And likely, they're not going to be forgiving about it. These are the consequences for cheating in Clear Creek ISD...

Doesn't sound anything like a situation you'd want to deal with, huh? Didn't think so. Don't cheat.

• If something bad happens, feel free to speak up! Don't be afraid to tell someone about your situation. They will likely help you get through the situation.

So those are my tips and tricks for surviving at a high school, especially in an early college high school like Clear Horizons. Do me a HUGE favor and PLEASE utilize these tips and tricks! They are vital to your success on campus!

Surviving 9th grade at Clear Horizons - The Routine

Hello and welcome to the first post on this blog/guide!

If you happen to be a student reading this (which was the audience it was intended for), then congratulations! It seems like you've made it through another school year! (We all have, actually!)

If you're about to become a freshman in Clear Creek ISD going to Clear Horizons, then you've officially come to the right blog! This blog features a guide on how to survive Clear Horizons Early College High School! (If you're not in CCISD and/or you're not going to CHECHS, please don't leave just yet. Like the description says, this guide will try to be as relevant as it can be to everybody, especially the high school students.)

Before I even think about adding on what to do and what NOT to do on campus (which will likely be featured in the next blog post), I'd like to tell you the routine I go through myself every day I'm in school. (This was when I was a freshman - next year, I'm a sophomore, so it MAY be the same - but hey, we never know what could happen.)

My day would start by getting up at 5:30 AM every morning. (No, that's not a typo.) I would then get ready for the day, which consists of taking a shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast, and getting whatever is needed for the school day. I do all of those activities in about 45 minutes, because I have to head out the door about 6:15 AM in order to catch my morning bus at 6:25 AM. After getting on the bus, I usually end up just enjoying the ride, because I'm the one that tries to sit on the front seats of the bus whenever I can.

I get off my bus at 6:40 AM, and I have arrived at Clear Springs High School. Not the school I really want, so what do I do? I go in the school and talk with a few of my friends (usually my best friends) while I wait for the CHECHS bus to come pick us up about 7:10 AM before it leaves at 7:15 AM (7:05 AM for Clear Creek HS/Clear Falls HS). Again, on the bus ride, I usually just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, knowing that you've likely got a big day ahead of you.

After 25-35 minutes (depending on traffic), I finally arrive at the school I'm enrolled in: Clear Horizons Early College High School. Unlike a lot of other high schools, there's no fixed place to sit and wait - you can be anywhere that's not out of boundaries (defined by Clear Horizons). Also unlike the other high schools, we have an advisory period every day in the morning, which starts at 8:00 AM. Advisory is where we go through the pledges, the minute of silence, the Daily News, and whatever else there is in Advisory, if anything else. If nothing else, then the rest of the time is used for tutorials. Whether there is something usually depends on what day it is and if we have a lesson for Advisory on a particular day.

Here's our normal schedule for Clear Horizons... I know the schedule seems a little weird, but once you know exactly what to do, it's pretty easy going from there.

Contrary to what my belief was at first, I had thought some people were going to have to rush and move fast to catch the bus back home, as after our last period, we had only 5 minutes from the end of class to getting on the bus. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure how I thought that anymore, as by examining the schedule - it's simply not possible. I probably thought that because I thought some classes were a little ways away, but nope - pretty much all Clear Horizons high school classes are in Building 9, which is where the buses pick up and drop off (right in front of the building). Unless something miraculous happens with scheduling, you probably won't be having a college class on the last period of the school day. I've never heard of it happening to someone, but they say it's possible!

After our last period is dismissed at 3:20 PM, we go back home. You can either find a ride home or catch the bus back home. For demonstration purposes, because I've done this at least 150 times in my 9th grade year, I'll demonstrate the commute back home.

On Monday - Thursday, the bus goes back to your zoned intermediate school (for me, it was Victory Lakes Intermediate), where you then ride your neighborhood bus back home. When you get there, you will likely have a little bit of waiting time (about 5-10 minutes). This time is mainly good for going to the bathroom and socializing with anybody else nearby. That amount of time, to me, is not really a gap of time where I could get some work done (that's usually due to preparation in starting to get schoolwork done, which could be getting out papers, turning on your computer, etc., in addition to packing up when time's almost up, like putting away the papers, turning off your computer, etc.) So that's that. After waiting, getting home from the intermediate school is usually just as simple as getting on the bus, getting off at your bus stop, then walking back home.

On Friday, it's a completely different story, especially because dismissal is NOT at 3:20 PM - it is 1:00 PM on Fridays, with the buses leaving at 1:30 PM. If you don't believe me, or you want to see the Friday schedule, take a look at this screenshot below. (Note: There are no college classes for students on Friday.)

When the buses leave, they go to your zoned high school. Since the buses leave at 1:30 PM, when you arrive at the zoned high school, there's a great chance that you will have a lot of waiting time (about 30 minutes, more or less depending on which high school you're zoned to). If you want, you can use the time wisely and attempt to get some work done - or you can just chill out while you wait. Either way, dismissal at the regular high schools is at 2:30 PM, which is when you can get on the bus to go back home from the regular high school. After the bus ride, you're home at last! Hooray!

So that's the routine I follow (of course, everyone's commutes are different). Now you have a general idea of what the routine is if you take the bus every single time. However, I would like to point out that there are a few times where bus transportation is either limited or not available. The most popular factor here is Late Arrival. Clear Horizons does NOT participate in Late Arrival (my guess is because of San Jac and the college class schedule), therefore you're still expected to arrive at 8:00 AM on Late Arrival days. The catch? There's no neighborhood buses to transport you from your bus stop to your zoned high school, so you'll at the very least have to arrange your own transportation to the zoned high school. The Clear Horizons buses still run at their normal time, though.

One more thing - I've heard that even though CCISD's Thanksgiving holiday break is observed for a full week, SJC's holiday break starts on Wednesday. That means that unless your professors cancelled or you announced your planned absence beforehand, you will have school on Monday/Tuesday, but you won't have any high school classes because of CCISD's holiday - you will only have SJC's college classes on those two days during the break that the College starts observing in the middle of the week. I'm not sure if the College is doing it again for the 2016-2017 school year, but my guess is pretty confident that they'll likely do the exact same thing again.

Even though this is only my first post, I'd still like to thank you guys for even reading this guide! For the time being, stay tuned for the next post, which will likely feature some tips on what to do and what not to do on campus!

If'd you like, you can follow me on Twitter. My Twitter is @TweetingTayne. I retweet funny stuff (been doing that a LOT recently), post about what's going on around me, and vice versa. If I know you as a friend, I'll be more than welcome to follow you back! :)