First semester of junior year, I'm not gonna lie, wasn't terrible. I made it difficult on myself. I already left summer and went into the school year with such little motivation to do well in my classes. I did the bare minimum- any homework or classwork assignments, but barely the bulk of it: studying.

I spent weekends going out to festivals, some of which took up entire two-day weekends. I procrastinated and let myself get distracted and continue to remain unmotivated. I put off school and let a bunch of other things come first. I didn't completely care what those things were; I basically did anything I could before beginning my studies. By late October, it became normal for me to stay up until 3 a.m. at least, and I even pulled a few all-nighters. While I know that having a social life is important, I let myself get far too distracted from the most important thing: school.

At the start of the new year (literally January 1st around midnight), I deleted two of my most-used apps: Instagram and Snapchat. As crazy and sad as it sounds, I was pretty much addicted to those apps. I spent so much of my day mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or replying to snapchats to maintain my streaks, and when I sent all my snaps, I would watch stories. It was more than social media, though. I texted and Facetimed for hours and hours at once. My phone, overall, was a major distraction. So the temporary solution is to limit the amount of time I spend using my phone for non-school related stuff.

Next semester, there will be no more distractions. Yes, I'm making it clear to myself for any point in the semester when I'm losing motivation for those good grades. I won't allow my hard work from freshmen and sophomore years to go to waste after junior year, especially this year being probably the most important in high school.