Hello DV students – thank you for submitting to the Wildcat Tribune’s advice column! We’ve tried our best to answer your questions for this week.

Disclaimer: The advice of the Wildcat Tribune Advice Column is provided by students, for students. While we have your best interests in mind, and we will try our best to help you, we are not expert sources for more serious topics. Our advice is intended to support you and help guide your decisions, but you are in no ways obligated to take it. Please email the Tribune if you feel the need to reach out for any kind of help or follow up for any inquiries.

The Tribune reserves the right to abstain from responding/publishing any submission. Please refrain from explicitly referencing other individuals in your submissions and/or using explicit language, as doing so may warrant the partial or total redaction of your question. We will not tolerate threats directed towards other students, and we will not respond to questions that we determine to be offensive or violent in nature.

Q: HOW DO I GET GOOD GRADES

-P(r)etty

A: Hello P(r)etty,

Hope you’re having a good day! It really depends on what classes you are taking. If you are taking any weighted/honors classes, best of luck and I do believe in you, but be willing to sacrifice some aspects of your life. Honestly, it really depends on your attitude and how you learn. Everyone has a different learning curve. Some people learn differently ely; some pick things up immediately while some require various learning techniques. Whatever works for you, as long as you accept that learning takes time.

Thanks,

Daniela W. 

Q: How many moles of atoms are in the average mole animal? Alternatively, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

-A person

A:  Hello A person,

What a great question. Sorry, not a chem person. My fellow Tribune friend said approximately 2.83495 moles? Regarding the angels, maybe 17.34? 

Thanks,

Daniela W. 

Q : my friends is being threatened by seniors, what would i do?

-really annoyed

A: Hi really annoyed,

I have no idea what you “would” do! What you “should” do, however, is tell them that their days are numbered, that you will find them, and you will destroy them. If that doesn’t work, I recommend you report them to admin.

Yours,

Sarah K.

P.S. If those seniors are giving you real trouble, I suggest skipping the first step and going straight to the office. Good luck destroying!

Q: How do I stop procrastinating on my work?

-idk

A: Hi idk,

To stop procrastinating on your work, maybe you could set “false” deadlines that are earlier than the actual deadline so that you force yourself to work earlier than you typically would. Or you could start working on homework immediately after coming home so that you don’t get distracted by electronics and you could get your work done earlier. If it helps, you could do a little bit of your work each day so that you aren’t ́t as stressed the day before everything is due.

I hope this is helpful!

Shruthi

Q: How do you stay focused in high school? There are so many people and so many distracting things.

-Unfocused

A: Hi Unfocused,

Concentrating on schoolwork in high school can be one of the hardest things a student can go through. Here are a few tips that have helped me focus so far in high school. 

• If you have an iPhone I would recommend using screen time, it allows you to take a step back from social media, Netflix, etc. and concentrate more on your work. 
•  As cliche as it sounds, make sure you’re getting enough sleep, if you’re tired, it’ll be even harder for you to focus in class
• Take detailed notes- reading over bland, vague notes can be pretty boring, just using a few colors or highlighting key terms can help you concentrate when studying
• Take short breaks often, if you go to the TomatoTimer website, try the ‘Pomodoro’ tab, then take a ‘short break’, after repeating this a couple of times take a ‘long break’ as well. By taking small breaks, it gives you some time to cool down, and you’re able to go back to your work with a new ferocity. 

I hope this helps!

Megan 

Q: How do you know that you are making the right decision when everyone is telling you you’re wrong? I’m especially having doubts myself but only because of the reality of the decision is hitting me.

-cccxflame

A: Hi cccxflame,

Always trust your first instincts and don’t doubt yourself. If you truly believe that you are making the right decision, stick to your guns and don’t let yourself be easily swayed by others. 

Take care,

Shruthi

Q: What do you do when you feel like punching a wall but can’t?

-cccxflame

A: Dear cccxflame, 

You could scream into a pillow. 

In all seriousness, go for a walk or a bike ride. If you have your license, I would highly caution you against driving in that frame of mind. 

The best thing to do is to create some distance between you and the reason for your frustration. 

Obviously, there are many other options. You can do yoga or write about how you feel, but honestly, when people give those suggestions when I’m angry, I just feel more inspired to punch a wall. 

Cheers,
Oce

Q: I have a friend who really enjoys sleeping. Like he really really really really likes to sleep. It won’t even be a small 20 minute power nap, sometimes he’ll just be out for 4 hours on end. Not to mention, these naps aren’t even placed in the prime nap time. Many times, the naps will be around 7-11PM, which means that by the time he wakes up, most other people will be going to bed. It’s become such a problem that even his parents have encouraged him to sleep during school so that he doesn’t keep clonking out once he gets home. At this point, I can even predict his behavior, such as waking up with a loud swear once he’s realized that he’s slept past two alarms. How do you think I can help my friend solve his sleeping problem?

-Schleeper

A: Hi Schleeper!

As a prodigious napper myself, I completely understand the frustration of waking up late, especially when you haven’t even finished your homework. If your friend is sleeping through several alarms during naps, it probably means that the alarms aren’t loud enough or don’t last long enough. In order to help them with this problem, you should tell them to check the settings on their alarm. If problems persist, this person can ask their parents or siblings to wake them up at a given time. As a last resort, if you suspect this person has been asleep for too long, you could even call their phone to wake them up.

However, the need for such long naps as well as “clonking out” so soundly indicates that your friend is extremely tired; is this friend getting enough sleep at night? To solve the root of this sleeping problem, you should address their chronic exhaustion. In my experience, procrastination pushes back my sleep time a lot, so trying to limit that and sleeping earlier will help your friend reduce their need for such powerful naps.

I hope your friend can resolve their sleeping problem!

Yours,

Michael Han  

Q: My best friend is secretly a furry. He enjoys dressing up as various anthropomorphic characters, and even purchases copious amounts of figurines and furry related comics. He has even adopted various phrases such as “uwu” and “owo,” and always types his texts to me with strange actions embedded in asterisks, such as “*nuzzle nuzzle*.” To make things worse, he even uses furry slang when we talk together, and constantly refers to his “fursona” and pressures me to join his “furmeets.” Frankly, I don’t know how to feel about his behavior, especially because he’s keeping it a secret from everyone else and only acts this way when we’re alone. Should I be supportive of this behavior?

-anonymous (*name edited)

A: Hi anonymous!

My best advice would be to allow your friend to be whoever they are. You don’t have to necessarily agree with who your friend is and what your friend does, but you should respect him/her. Your friend has a right to choose what they do/don’t want. Being a teenager is confusing and expression takes many forms; everyone is their own person. Hope this helps! 

Best of luck,

Daniela W.

Q: How do I balance my extracurricular activities with my intense course rigour? I want to go to an Ivy League so I know that I should be in the top 3% of my class at least.

-bob marley

A: Hey bob marley! 

Make schedules. Crrraazzzzyyy idea right? It helps trust me. Make a list of everything you want to do and then allot time for each item on that list. It always helps when you have a clear idea of what you need to get done at what time. If you’re not really good at sticking things, make to-do lists with everything you need to do so looking at it will help you organise everything that needs to be done. I’m not sure if any of that makes sense. If it doesn’t, just know that all I’m trying to say is that make schedules and lists. It’ll help you be an organized person. 

You got this! 

Harshita 

A: college apps suck!

-(no pseudonym)

Q: Dear fellow senior, 

I’m not sure I can provide any advice for a few reasons, namely that 

1. You didn’t ask any questions
2. I’m the least qualified person ever to give advice on how to better manage college apps

But take care, and remember that we’re all in that same, miserable boat together.

Oce

Q: Last year, I had a really great English teacher, and I really want to go visit her, but I don’t know what to talk to her about and I have a feeling she might have forgotten me over the summer and that I won’t have anything to talk to her about or any justified reason to go visit her. I don’t want to go back and just thank her for being an amazing teacher because I already did that at the end of last year.  What do I say? Should I just let it go? Ahhh help me please bc I really want to maintain a good relationship with her.

-Worried eek

A: Dear Worried eek,

You should just go for it! Just drop by her classroom during lunch/brunch/after school, and tell her you just wanted to visit. I visit one of my old teachers from middle school all the time, and just talk to her about how school and life in general is going. Ask her about how her new students are if you can’t think of anything to talk about. Remember, she’s just a person, too, and she’ll be happy to see that you want to keep in touch with her. Also, I doubt that she’s forgotten an entire year with you in the two months of summer, so don’t worry about that 🙂

Amrita

Q: What is the best way to release a piece to 3000 students of a particular high school when you don’t have each student’s contact info or the time to get it? 

-Food Reviewer

A: Hi Food Reviewer,

Maybe if you know a teacher who goes to that school, you could ask them to post it on schoolloop news. Or you could post it on your social media or ask someone who goes to that school or has access to the school ́s social media to post it on there. Those are both ways to get your piece to many people at once.

I hope this is helpful!
Shruthi 

Q: Can alumni still get their advice from here?

-alumni2019

A: Dear alumni2019,

Absolutely!

Oce

Q: I honestly miss my ex so much and it’s so hard to deal with. advice on getting over a breakup??

-pusheen

A: Of course it’s going to be hard when you’re going through a break up! Feelings suck but hey it’s a part of life, isn’t it? The best way to deal with it is just by focusing on other things such as school, sports, and other extracurricular activities. Sounds cliche and dumb but it works! 

Remember it’s gonna take a while to get through it and it’s okay to pine and whine over an ex, feelings are feelings and the best way to get over them is through them 

If all else fails, listen to Taylor Swift on repeat until those feelings go away. 

All the best, 

Harshita 🙂 

Q: Hi Tribune, I would love to ask out one of my friends, but I don’t know if he likes me back, or even if he likes men. Send me some smooth pick up lines to charm him and get me an awesome date to homecoming. Thanks!

-Adrian

A: Dear Adrian, 

I think you should try to find out if he likes men, too, before you ask him to homecoming to avoid an awkward situation. If he does, then you should go for it! Later, you’ll only regret the actions you didn’t take. As for the pick-up lines, here are a few that I found:

• I’d be lion if I said I didn’t want to go to homecoming with you! (you could do this with a picture/stuffed animal of a lion)
• I know this is cheesy, but do you want to go to homecoming with me? (you could bring him pizza)
• I donut wanna go to homecoming with anyone but you (bring him donuts?)

I think your best bet is to just choose a pun related to something you know he likes, and a poster or food would be good, too!

No matter how you do it, I’m sure he’ll appreciate that you put effort into asking him 🙂

Best of luck,

Amrita