Ask Blair is an advice column run by a GPHS student under the alias of Blair (or for this month, the Love Doctor). Its purpose is to provide advice to students in search of it. Keep in mind that your responses will most likely be in the next issue of The Scroll. Scroll below to see the answers for last issue's questions!
Last year, we launched the advice column Ask Blair! Everything is 100% anonymous, including my own identity. Though I go by Blair for the purpose of the column, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you know me outside of The Scroll. I’m a student at GPHS, just like all of you. My goal for the column is to reach out to you guys and do what I can to help you during your times of trouble. Don’t be afraid to send in questions for next month’s issue, and I look forward to writing for you guys in the months to come. Scroll to the bottom to enter your own questions for me, Blair.
*Editor's Note: The Scroll's Ask Blair! Column is to solely provide advice, care, and support to students in need. We want to hear from you, and we understand that some of the topics that will be discussed will be emotional and sometimes distressing, but this advice column is not meant to be used as an alternative to any sort of professional therapy or counseling.
Thank you 💜
Okay gang, if no one else has told you this, then I will. You need to sleep every single night! I know it might feel like there’s not enough time in the day, but you need to sleep every single night. I usually try to get to sleep by at least eleven or twelve most nights, because I have to get up at seven in the morning. If you get up a little earlier or later, go to sleep accordingly, whether this be earlier or later the night before, but try to shoot for eight hours every night. If you’re still doing homework at eleven o’clock at night, then that may be a sign you have too much on your plate. Try to set it aside for the next day, which I know can be hard, but as an honors student who knows how it feels to have a heavy workload, trust me: you’ll feel so much better in the morning when you feel rested and refreshed, and it’ll be so much easier to get work done when you’re not fighting sleep.
This is a great question, and I’m sure you’re not the only person wondering the same thing! Something my S/O and I have been doing for gifts recently is making “Open When” letters. Basically, they’re a stack of letters, and each of them have a different purpose. They each say “Open when you feel…” and have a different emotion assigned to them. You can make one for bored, sad, missing each other, happy, etc. They’re really fun and heartfelt and cost almost nothing! You can attach rules to them, too, like how many you’re allowed to open a week, or you have to be on the phone to open them, etc. Just have fun with them!
There’s also the classic chocolate, flowers, stuffed animals, etc. Those can be a great simple way to tell your S/O you love them. You could try getting them a bunch of small gifts with a theme to show that you know what they like or remember the little things. I once got my S/O a tea-themed gift, with a mug, a bunch of their favorite tea bags, and a little tea strainer, so you could try something like that. You could also do a color theme, or a music theme, etc. There are tons of options! The important thing to remember is that a really good S/O will love you no matter what, even if you aren’t super good at gifts. Good luck!
This depends a lot on what you’re looking for! If you have Spotify, they actually have quite a few genre-based playlists that can be a great place to discover new music. I would recommend searching up a genre and browsing the playlist selection. Apple Music has some similar playlists, but they're not as specific or flushed out, so I’d recommend starting with Spotify, which also has a ton of playlists tailored to your taste specifically, which are usually pretty good. Basically, whatever the Spotify gods say, listen to them. Another thing you can do is make a music question box on your Instagram story! You might be surprised by what your friends have up their sleeves for you, and it’ll be a great way for you and your friends to find something new to bond over.
I totally agree that schools need to be much more vigilant in preparing kids for adulthood. Career academy was a step in the right direction, but even then, a lot of the things I learned through my own experience in the job market actually contradicted what I learned in that class (but I still use my resume from the class, so that’s good). What schools should be doing is to have a class, maybe a math class, specifically about banking and taxes and such that should be required for all students. Classes that used to be more common, like cooking and basic sewing and laundry should make a comeback as well, and be required for all students. It just seems a bit weird to me that I’m required to take three years of math and only a small fraction of it will actually be useful after I graduate, especially since there’s so much math-related stuff I still don’t understand and will need. I only learned how to hem pants last month, and I don’t know how to cook for myself when I’m living in a college dorm. These things seem way more essential to me than analyzing Shakespeare in English class (unless you plan to study literature in college, which I doubt the majority of the school will go on to do).
It scares me, too, that we still don’t know a lot of these things and will be expected to just figure it out on our own. It especially scares me that a lot of kids in this world don’t have close parental figures in their lives to guide and advise them through these challenges, which is why I think it’s especially important that the school teach us these skills. After all, isn’t that what high school is supposed to be about? Preparing for adulthood? If that were really a priority, I feel like we’d all be a little less clueless.
Great question! The fact of the matter is, even if the administrators care about students’ mental health and do what they can with the limited resources they have, I personally don’t believe it’s a high priority in the school district. That said, there are a few people you can talk to. One of our writers, Deenie, actually has a mental health-themed column every month (last month, she discussed C-PTSD). These articles are super informative and you may find something in there that could be helpful to you! She provides tons of resources, including counselors/mental health specialists that the school provides. In the case of a loss of a teacher, they offer extra help as well, so I’ll leave their contact information below for anyone who would be interested. I hope this helps! There may not be a whole lot of resources available locally, but they really do try their best to be helpful. Good luck, and of course, I may not be a professional, but you can always vent to Blair!
Kris Stuart, Mental Health Counselor: kstuart@grantspass.k12.or.us
Mr. Baxter, Options Specialist Counselor: jbaxter@grantspass.k12.or.us
My sources tell me Stuart is located in the athletics department and Baxter is located in the counseling office.
