Advice with Leila

Sophie Ratner Editor in Chief

As the warmer weather approaches, so does the fve-letter word that NT students can not escape in their daily conversations. Exams. Of course, for many, this time period can bring up many stressful thoughts. Perhaps you remember the cramp in your hand as you were grinding out that short answer question or the stressful thought of “There’s no way there could be 4 C’s in a row on a Scantron sheet”, but don’t worry, because here is a list of do’s and don’ts for your upcoming exams.

DO: Make sure to layer up on those clothes. Depending on the semester of the exam you might be tempted to wear a seasonally appropriate outft, but you never know what could happen. You could end up writing in an unusually cold third-foor classroom, or realize that you shouldn’t have skipped studying that one section and start sweating profusely. Side note- I’m not too superstitious, but if you have a sweatshirt lying around with your preferred post-secondary institute of choice on it (you can even aim high with an Ivy-league t-shirt) maybe wear it! A little manifestation never hurt anybody.

DON’T: Pack lightly in your pencil case. If it seems overthe-top to bring 12 pencils to your math exam you’re wrong. Being over-prepared is never a bad thing! Maybe it feels illogical to bring a compass to your history exam? Wrong. You never know when you’ll be asked to draw a pie chart. Also, bring that A-list stationery. That really nice Muji mechanical pencil that you “borrowed” from a friend and never gave back is just begging to be used for your exams.

DO: Make a study playlist. Even if you prefer to study in complete silence, playlists are a great way to compile your emotions into a few songs. Pro-tip: listen to it on your way to school on exam day to calm you down, and then hype you up as you leave the building. The feeling of hearing the birds chirping in the opening notes of “Good Days” by Sza after my last exam of the semester was honestly unmatched.

DON’T: Forget how lucky you are in this moment to have a semestered year. No matter how overwhelmed you get, just remember: those poor non-semestered students have to take all their exams in the same time period!

DO: Make pretty notes. If you are a hater who rolls their eyes every time you see a classmate pull out 20 different coloured highlighters and start making the most elaborate MoMA-worthy notes, just know — I used to be a hater too. It was so annoying when they would make the teacher stay on the slide for 10 minutes just so they could intricately write each word in their handwriting that looks like a perfect Google font. But… for the past exam season, I put in more effort for my notes, using a brush pen for the titles, and assigning a colour for each unit. It helped make studying more fun and I can’t see light pink without thinking of the quadratic formula, so there.

With these tips, you’re all set up for the upcoming exams, good luck!

Leila Schrenk Section Editor

Dear Niners,

So my time giv ing you advice has fnal ly come to an end. I’ll be graduating, but more importantly, you will all become the slightly less annoying, but always infa mous 10’s. Even though I will miss you all, I’m glad to be mov ing on to the next stage of my life and starting university (ROLL GAELS!!). Over the past couple of issues, I’ve talked mostly about NT, but this issue, I’m going to share some of the more general things I’ve learned over the past four years.

Probably the most important thing I have come to realize during my time at NT is that you will grow and change as a person over these four years. I can tell you with certainty that if Grade 9 Leila and Grade 12 Leila met each other, there would probably be an all-out brawl; hair would be pulled, and blood would be drawn. That girl was actually feral and needed a good humbling. But she was also actually scared of everything and it took me almost two years to break free of the shell I was in. Shout out to Grade 11 Leila. She was when I actually started to fgure out who I was as a person and not who I thought other people wanted me to be. She was also the reason I got early acceptances so fair warning, your Grade 11 grades do matter. I can truly tell you that when you are in this exact position in three years, about to graduate, you will look back and see how much you hate, love, and miss your past self. So if you don’t know who you are yet, don’t stress about it because you will come to fnd yourself.

But overall, I can confdently say that I have found the greatest group of friends (shout out to every single one of you) who have gotten me through heartbreak (failed talking stages), put up with me during some questionable nights out, and stuck by me through every single time I fell off the face of the Earth. And trust me, you will fnd your people. It might not be next year, but you will fnd the type of people that you know will stay with you long after you leave the walls of NT. And please please please don’t stress if you start drifting with certain friends. It’s bound to happen and it’s not the end of the world. Friendships change, people change and THAT IS OKAY. Not all friendships are meant to last, but the ones that are, are the true ones worth holding on to.

Lastly, if Grade 9 Leila heard me saying this I think her head would explode, but Viv is your best friend. Viv, my mom, is the one person that I actually could not have survived these four years without and I am so eternally grateful for everything she has done for me to help me get to where I am today and shape me into the person I have become. I know you are all 14 and 15 years old, so you’re in that parents are actually the worst (trust me I’ve been there). But there is no one else who will support you like they do, so cut them a little slack, and I can guarantee that they are not as bad as you think. Also, you guys are low key mean to them so try and be a little nicer.

So if you take one thing from this article, please take this. People always told me that highschool would go by in a fash, and I never believed them. Now that I’m graduating it feels like yesterday that I stepped into that orientation for the frst time and learned the school song, which I now know by heart (RAH RAH RAH). So embrace your days at NT, because one day will be your last. So roll Coyotes, roll Hawks, roll Norseman and now roll Gaels.

XOXO, Leila

P.S. Don’t get high and mighty because you’re 10’s now and you think the new Niners are sooo annoying. You guys are literally not any better.

P. P. S. 11’s you have the right to be cocky, being in Grade 12 is so nice.

Leila