Academic
You talk with your Andover advisor to determine what types of classes you should take to benefit you in the best way possible. Advisors remind you that you will learn things that people around the world do not have the chances to do.
What are hard classes?
You took the highest level classes possible for you to take. The higher level of classes, and the harder of a time you have here at Andover, the better off you will end up later in life. You will learn things people around the world do not have the chance to.
Everyone in your dorm just arrived on campus, and conversations are starting all around you. You see friends already being made and laughs being shared. You end up introducing yourself a few times but almost always feel left out.
What is make friends later?
There will be plenty of opportunities later to be able to make friends. Especially on sports teams, they provide a bonding experience that advances social interaction.
During the orientation week everyone asks you what sport you will try and they tell you stories of their prior achievements. You try out for the team and are asked to demonstrate the correct form for the eggbeater kick. You give it your best but cannot elevate at all.
What is hope to improve?
You know the season is going to be rough, with lots of bumps along the road. But you see the varsity players and can see yourself in their shoes. You put forward the goals you need, and the time you will need to practice.
Your throat is sore and you have the chills. The food at Paretsky tastes different and your stomach aches. Your muscles ache and you find it difficult to fall asleep. You got tested negative, and can still go around campus, but your head still aches. It is morning, and you still feel sick, not knowing whether to go to class.
What is go to class?
You need to go to class, as missing just one class will lead to you being behind in class. Being behind will last for the rest of the term. All you need is some coughdrops to make the swelling in your throught stop, then you will be alright to go to class.
It is 11 at night, and the homework has only just started. The assignments pile up, and each time you finish one, another jumps at you, filling the others place. You know it is lights out, but you need to finish your work.
What is keep working?
As hard as it is to do the work, it is doable. There are other people in the same classes, who are managing to finish their work. You just need to put more effort in the work you are doing, and soon the work will be finished, no matter how long it takes.
The house counselors are on the lookout for who keeps making a mess in the common room. They call a meeting of the entire dorm and explain the situation and expect residents to identify the guilty parties. After a long silence, the house counselors threaten to remove privileges for everyone if no one steps forward and takes responsibility.
What is keep silent?
The number one rule of dorm life is to remember to be loyal to your dormmates. The trust that you build up over time will be permanently damaged if you put your own interests ahead of your friends. Remember, non sibi.
You finished your first two terms of school, and you are doing course requests for the spring. Your two main sports are over and you are considering a life sport to give you extra time to have more relaxation over the term. The other option is to chose another new sport, and spend the rest of the year busy balancing work and sports.
What is choose another sport?
To succeed in school and get into a good college, you need to be doing sports. You need to show that you are working hard. If you take a term off you will get weaker, and lose all of the strength, and techniques you have been working on. The summer is the time for relaxation.
Over the past week you have been spending each night late up working away at essays, studying for tests, and doing homework. You have just as much homework tonight due tomorrow, and are sure you will have to stay up very late. You are not sure if you should do it or not.
What is stay up late? If you hand assignments late, the amount of points taken off will be drastic towards your overall grade. As well as the points taken off, the work due the next day will only pile onto it. It will be an endless cycle of pushing work forward. You just need to bare just a bit longer until the term is over.
You are taking your first quiz, and as you look at the paper, all of your studying seems to disappear. You thought it was going to be easy, but as you continue to answer questions, your answers start to seem wrong. All other quizzes in the past came easily to you, but this is different.
What is study more next time?
There is nothing you can do in the moment. You should have studied harder for the quiz. Everyone manages to study and do well on the quiz. If you had studied more, the questions would seem much easier. The only thing left to do is to study more and more for your next quiz, and hope your final grade ends up okay.
You are out with a group of friends and looking at the weekender about where to go. Everyone is deciding where to. After a first round of suggestions reveals significant likes and dislikes from everyone in the group. You realize that your group of friends have extremely different places to go. The decision is a movie you have already seen, and dislike.
What is go along?
No matter how you feel about what the movie is, or where your going, making a fuss will not help. If you do decide to complain, and say where you want to go, that will only push you further away from the friends you are trying so hard to make. As an Andover student, it is important to make connections with your peers, and you cannot break them.
You are seeing how everyone on your team who is better than you is also stronger. You know they all do other things outside of practice to improve. You start going to the gym, and working out after practice to improve, and be better than others on your team. The hours start to pile up, and you only get to your dorm at 7. You are already tired enough, and you also have very little time to finish working.
What is put your homework off?
You want to be better, and know what you need to do. You must continue with all of your training, or else you will get worse.The worse you get, and get behind the rest of the team will cause you to never make it in your sports. As sports are so important, you need to be one of the best so you can stand out.
You just got out of sports practice, and are already tired. You know you have a test the next day, and need to get back to your dorm. You have not eaten yet, but commons is far and will take a long time to get to. You know you have a lot of studying to do which you put off till that night. Do you walk to commons, and risk having too little time to study.
What is don't eat?
If you do go take the time to eat at commons, you will not have any time left to study. You will be too tired by the time you get to the dorm to work, let along study, that you need to skip your meal and get back to your dorm. It is only one meal, and you can make up for it later.
It is finals week. You were supposed to start working on your history essay two weeks ago, but with all the classes, sports, and socializing to balance, you have not started. You just started writing, but you have no clue as to how you can finish. You have sources, but you can not even think of a thesis to write. As you write, you continue to think of a way you can manage to at least get a decent grade on your final.
What is start working?
Just write the essay, get something on the paper, and edit it. As simple as it sounds, all you need to do is finish it. After you at least have something to work with, you need to edit it. Not once or twice, but you need to read it over, changing everything multiple times until your essay is ready to be turned in as your final.
Your history paper is due tomorrow, and you have your afternoon planned for grinding away at the essay planning to finish it all. As you are walking back to your dorm, one of your friends sees you on the sidewalk and tells you the friend group is going downtown and you can't miss out.
What is go with them?
The day is long and you will have plenty of time when you are done to finish doing your work. You need to get to know the people around you better and cannot be left out. Being left out once will lead to you falling out of the group. You need to go with them to maintain the friendships.
Coach asks you to dress for the varsity team. You are so proud of yourself as your hard work has paid off. To do so you must practice with the varsity and they pound on you for the entire practice. Practice is harder than you ever could have imagined, and you are sore for hours afterwards.
What is keep waiting?
As you continue to practice hard it will get easier. If you want to be a successful athlete, you need to go through the pain of improvement. You need to keep trying 100 percent every day, and soon practicing will be easy.
It is winter term, and as the snow builds up, the sun stops shining, and the cold freezes over everything, school is still there. The work is just as hard if not harder because of the weather outside. There is nothing to do outside, and you spend all of your time inside, either working, sleeping, or trying to get that free time to relax.
What is wait?
There is nothing you can do about the weather. The depresiveness brought by the winter, and the tough hours you are going to face are necessary to becoming successful. You need to be able to show that as an Andover student that you can push through hard times, and are able to work well in bad conditions. Even if you have to spend a lot of time alone, as long as you do well, it is fine.
You signed up for a club you really enjoy. You are so psyched for all of the things you are going to be able to do in it throughout the year. You have been thinkin about all of the things you will do, but then remember all of the work which has been piling on top of you recently.
What is don't join the club?
No matter how much you enjoy spending time in this club, school is always more important. A club will not be able to help you in the long run as your academics will. Is is better to not join the club at all than join, and have to skip all the meetings. Academics always come first before personal interests. You need good grades to succeed.
It is spring term, and as you think about the past year, you ponder on the friends you have made. You know you have a couple friends, good ones at that. You enjoy spending time with them, and they are always helpful. As you look around campus, you ponder on other students and their friends. You ponder on what you should be doing differently.
What is make more friends? To be successful in your social life at Andover, it is necessary to know, and be friends with everyone you meet. You should have tons of friends on campus, and say hello to anyone you see on the side of the road. Having a lot of friends shows how amicable you are, and shows you know how to socialize with others, or else you are antisocial.
The long hours you have spent training in practice, in the gym, and mentally, are barely showing. It has almost been a whole term of sports, but you still have not achieved much. You notice improvement, but you are still not even competitive with the other athletes on your team. You are starting to get discouraged, as if this is the wrong sport for you. You have gone through arduous hours of practice, and fought through the pain, but for what.
What is stick with it?
As an athlete, the only way to get better is to just practice more. If you are not noticing any progress, even though you are putting in a lot of hard work, maybe you just need to work harder. There is always more that you can do to improve, and the pain is the way to know it is working.
Finals week has come, and you are so close to the grades you need. You are used to finals week, and have been through it three times before. As it starts, you are already spending hours studying and writing essays. You notice headaches, and at night before bed, you can barely sleep because of the stress of the next day to come. Your sleep and mind are getting affected, and you are not sure what to do.
What is let it be?
Stress is normal here at Andover, and everyone goes through the same thing. Wasting time to take breathers, talk about it with others, and think of ways to solve will only be a waste of time, and hinder from your academics. It is much better to get through the week of stress, and await the break of next week.