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A quick update before we get this started. Please submit your responses in the form linked at the beginning and end of the article. I’m responding only to questions that come up on the form, so if you’d like a response submit it through the form. Thanks! ~Auggie

Dear Auggie,

I wanted to make friends but then it was hard I found a few but I want to be popular. 

~Yeetygirl3

Dear Yeetygirl3,

Well, I’ll tell you this much. Making friends can be hard sometimes, but if you’re in the right place at the right time you can make lifelong friendships. What I suggest is trying to talk to people. I know it’s hard sometimes, but talking to people and getting to know them is a good way to make friends, and they don’t need to be popular to be good friends. If I’m honest, the best friends are the people that aren’t necessarily popular.

I hope this helped!

~Auggie

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Dear Auggie,

A couple of things: First of all, how in the world can i finish all my work early, I’d like some advice for actually doing my work. I don’t know what to do. I want to talk to friends, eat lunch, play games, and simply just CHILL!!!! Could you help me or give tips please? Thanks Auggie!

~Winter

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Dear Winter,

Ah yes. The struggles of making a schedule for school and getting things done early. Some teachers don’t even post their content until the day it’s due so it can’t be done until the day the assignment is due. There are a few things you can do to get ahead and have less to do during the week, even with this obstacle. 

You can do the homework that is posted over the weekend or on fridays. This allows for more time on weekdays to get your other work done, even if it does get rid of some of your free time during the weekend. 

Actually doing your work is another struggle. It’s easy to get distracted while working at home, and being in a room where you usually relax, if that’s something you do, can make it miserable. But I may have a few tips to remedy this. 

Work in an office or room similar to an office. This eliminates many distractions that live in rooms. Like I said in last week’s edition, play focusing music or music without words, as the words can be distracting, use Bluetooth headphones and put your phone in another room. Putting it in another room is important, because if you do that it eliminates distractions from social media and notifications and such. Again, as I said in last week’s edition, ask your parents to time limit your fun websites and apps on your iPad until you can prove that you’ve done the work for the day or even more if you want and then you can use your iPad for fun. 

Doing fun things during the day is still possible if you pick the right time. For example, talk to your friends after you’re all done with school for the day. You could even talk to your friends in zoom and work on your homework together. I do that with my friends sometimes, and it helps all of us. As for eating lunch, always carve out some time during the day around lunchtime to take a break from your work and eat. Lunch breaks can help you refuel and get back to your work. 

You’re very welcome! I hope this helps!

 ~Auggie

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Dear Auggie,

How should I come out of the closet? And I’d like something that might actually help and not a, “there is no good answer I can’t help you with that”.

~Closet

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Dear Closet,

You. Are. Not. Alone. A lot of people are stuck in the closet, having not told anyone who they truly are. I may have a few tips that may help, though. 

If you’re a funny kind of person, and are quite confident, there’s a way of coming out that includes being sort of humorous. I know multiple people who do that little game where you twist their finger and pull it to reveal a small message sort of thing, and came out that way. If you’re not as confident, a bit of the shy type, you have to be proud of who you are. Let your pride morph into confidence, and use your own tactics. There’s always the plain and simple, “Hey guys I’m LGBTQ+,” but that doesn’t always work either. These things are sort of hard to predict, especially the reactions. The person you are telling could easily be against LGBTQ+ people but could just as easily be supportive. What I suggest to be able to predict the reaction is to ask your parents what they think of LGBTQ+ people. Depending on their reaction to that, they could be supportive or against it. What I suggest if they don’t like LGBTQ+ people is take a deep breath, and channeling your pride, tell them, “I am who I am and if you can’t accept that then that isn’t my problem,” or something along those lines. If someone won’t accept you as you are, then they’re someone you don’t want to hang around. It’s a totally different story if it’s your parents. If it’s your parents you’re coming out to, you can go a funny route as I mentioned before or you could go plain and simple or even come up with your own way. I’ve also seen people wear lots of rainbows, trying to get their parents to get the hint and that worked. There’s many ways of coming out, and there are many ways people react. Be prepared for anything. 

If you found this to not be very helpful, I apologize, but I recommend reading the first edition of Ask Apollo, my fellow advice columnist, who gives very good advice to a very much the same question. 

I hope this helps!

~Auggie

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Dear Auggie,

How do you cope with overwhelming situations? Also, what do you do when you start to have an anxiety attack?

~Anxious Snake

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Dear Anxious Snake, 

Overwhelming situations are hard situations to be in, and of course can make you panic and have some anxiety. But I may have a few tips to help in these situations. 

If you’re in an overwhelming situation, it really depends on what kind of situation it is. If you’re in a situation where you’re talking to a group of people and it gets tense, I suggest walking away and taking a deep breath. Just calm down. Now there’s other situations that are harder to calm down in. What I suggest for these is to take some time to yourself, relax, talk to your friends. 

If it comes to it, you may want to talk to a counselor, which the ones we have at our school are amazing. It’s good to talk through things, and just be calm for a while. The counselors are very nice and understanding, and just generally good people that listen and talk through things. 

If you have an anxiety attack, just take a deep breath, try to calm down, take your mind off what’s stressing you out. Go talk to someone, like your parents. Just generally try to calm down and talk through it with someone. 

If you did not find this helpful, I apologize, and recommend you read the first edition of Ask Apollo, my fellow advice columnist who answers a similar question with very good advice. 

I hope this helps!

~Auggie

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