Welp… I’m gone, so it’s all over for me.

But what does this mean? (nothing)

Why do you care? (you don’t)

And what nice sentimental and beautiful message am I going to leave in my last We Are article as a William Clarke Student? (The following article)

I’m not sure if it will surprise you to know that the writer who rants about Shakira, the Socceroo’s and particularly, Greek Yoghurt isn’t very good at sentimentality or wholesomeness. And yet, I’m going to give you 5 life tips to help you get through high school (and life in general) hopefully better than I have.

1. Look after yourself: We’re starting out strong with a bit of hypocrisy as I have not been known to have followed this advice, but this point is genuinely the most important if you want to have school go smoothly. Nothing matters more than your health and all aspects of it too. If you don’t have a happy and healthy body, mind and spirit you’re going to be struggling to meet the basics and stuff like schoolwork will just pile on top of those existing issues and freak you out. The best advice I could give is to address any issues at their core and make sure you’re healthy primarily and everything else will come easier afterward. There’s plenty of support out there, especially from your friends and family, utilise them.

2. Life’s only as good as you make it: Your experience in life, and especially in school, will only be as good as the effort you put into it. So you have to commit to the extracurricular activities and the stuff outside of school hours to end up having a better experience. I figured this out in year 11 and the past two years have been the best in my entire schooling because doing more stuff is just more fulfilling. In saying this, you also need to make the most of your time within school hours. Trying to make class fun and developing relationships with your teachers will make school seem so much more manageable and actually enjoyable. Just like with many things in life, the more you invest in something the more you get out from it. (This does not apply to the stock market or gambling) In saying this, if you put no effort or energy into school, its going to suck and you’re going to hate going. I stick by the point that if you do nothing and try nothing and find that school is unenjoyable, you’ve got only yourself to blame.

3. Don’t be afraid to mess up: You’re going to make mistakes in life, not just in tests, but socially or when presenting. If you spend your time trying to prevent these mistakes and make everything perfect, you’re not going to do much and will have achieved even less. Having too much shame or fear of embarrassment is something I’m grateful I’ve never struggled with, and it’s been so beneficial. Oftentimes I will say and/or do something that ranges from mildly silly to outright stupid and while I’m embarrassed at the time, I learn from it and looking back I’m grateful for the mistake and the lesson it taught me, the repercussions have also never been as bad as I thought they would be afterwards. So don’t be afraid to try new things, speak in front of people, suggest that new idea or whatever it is because most of the time it will work out, and if it doesn’t it’s never too bad.

4. Be positive: Optimism is perhaps your biggest tool in times where life seems to be all negative. You will likely find yourself surrounded by negativity and pessimistic people and if you don’t feel that way it’s probably because you are the pessimistic person. The only way to respond to this is by staying positive, thinking about the good in the world or something good in the future. You don’t always have to be smiling and skipping around school, jumping for joy, but for your sake and for everyone else’s try to keep a positive attitude. You’d be surprised how quickly you can kill a bad mood simply by thinking about your dream trip back to Greece (Or whatever makes you happy) sometime in the future. I also find my faith as a Christian can help keep me positive through either prayer or just realising how lucky we are to be in such a good world. However you derive your positivity is purely up to you and your personality, but I can safely say that staying positive, even in times when it seems like no one else is, can do wonders, not only for yourself but for the people around you who’s day you can brighten surprisingly easily just with some simple positivity (given that you’re not obnoxious with how you display that positivity).

5. Eat Greek Yoghurt: In reality, I just mean to do the things you love. The best way to make life enjoyable is to fill it with the things you enjoy. Be that listening to Shakira, eating Greek yoghurt, watching the Socceroo’s lose to Bahrain (seriously what on earth was that game), watching endless hours of pointless YouTube videos or whatever else you enjoy doing. If you want to have a good time during your school years, or any other years I assume, you have to do the things you love. More importantly, you have to spend time with the people you love, your family, your friends and whoever else as they are the people who are going to support and help you through school and life as a whole. Therefore, you should do the things you love and spend time with the people you love, because, why wouldn’t you? Those are the good moments which make life so precious and valuable, don’t squander them doing things you don’t enjoy. Also please try out Greek yoghurt, if it isn’t a regular part of your diet yet, it should be.

That was over a thousand words, so good on you for reading this far (or skipping to the conclusion because you couldn’t be bothered.) Whatever the case, my final piece of advice for the WCC students reading this is to write for We Are. It doesn’t have to be as a part of the team and it could be as little as one article, but give it a go. This article was a glorified rant, as are most of my articles but that doesn’t matter. We Are is a forum for any kind of student expression and any topic so don’t stress about the formality of your writing or your grammar skills, (we have editors for a reason) if you’ve got a topic you’re passionate about, or you just like writing, give We Are a go. As my grade and I leave the school, we need all of you to step up, just a little and start taking our places. So go do that.

I expect to see an article on Hummus: the second greatest superfood, when I check We Are next year. Don’t disappoint me.