A Day in the Life: High School Edition

Welcome to Wednesday! You’ve made it to the middle of the last week of January! And we have a super fun post for this rainy Wednesday. SLO Classical Academy High School Junior, Karena Talley, is here to share with us what a typical school day and home day look like for her in today’s A Day in the Life: High School Edition.

SCHOOL DAY (Wednesday 1/20)

6:15 am – 6:45 am – My alarm goes off. Ugh. After just coming off the MLK day break, it’s definitely hard to wake up this early and get my routine going. Eventually, after snoozing my alarm several times, I roll out of bed, wash my face, brush my teeth, and head out to the kitchen.

6:45 am – 7:15 am – Since both my sister and I have zero period, we’re both up and out in the kitchen at the same time. I eat some mini quiche, pack my backpack and lunch and finish getting ready for the day. 

7:20 am – 7:25 am – It only takes about 5 minutes for us to get to school and it’s a short 2-minute walk up to the high school campus from the SLOCA parking lot, so I grab some coffee, take my temperature for the daily Wellness Check, and get in the car. My sister normally plays a “pump-up” song to wake us up a little more before we arrive at school.

7:30 am – 8:30 am – My zero period is Trigonometry with Mr. Hanjiev. Today, we are learning about how to graph trigonometric functions. 

8:30 am – 9:30 am – I have English with Mr. McCullough. Today, we are finishing up our lecture on Kierkegaard and Existentialism before we read Kierkegaard’s book Fear and Trembling. Mr. McCullough explains the three spheres to us, telling us that it will give us a foundation for the book. 

9:35 am – 10:45 am – I have History with Ms. Shotwell. We are discussing indigenous people in America today, but not only from the vantage point of the United States government. Ms. Shotwell tells us that to get the full picture we need to look at perspectives from both the U.S. government’s side as well as the Native Americans’ side. I learned a lot more from the Native American’s perspective than I had known before.

10:45 am – 1:00 pm – I have a free period and lunch. Since my Anatomy class is on Tuesday/Thursday and I have a zero period, I have two free periods during the day. One is right before lunch, so I get a nice two-hour break. My friends and I normally spend it in the Lo-Fi lounge or outside by the snack shop. We discuss the PSAT that we are taking on Tuesday, then I work on my anatomy project and eat lunch for the rest of the time. 

1:00 pm – 2:10 pm – After lunch, I have Spanish with Señor Braga. Our class is only three people, so we get through things pretty fast and have lots of fun. Today, we are learning the past perfect tense and go through exercises to make sure we’re retaining it.     

2:20 pm – 3:45 pm – My last period is my second free period, so I spend it in the Lo-Fi lounge with some friends working on my anatomy project.

3:45 pm – 5:30 pm – Next is volleyball practice! It’s always nice to workout after a long school day. This year has been different for sure as we are still waiting for the green light from CIF to schedule our league games. It’s been tough to keep practicing without any games on the schedule, but we have a great coach who always stays positive and keeps us looking ahead. This exercise benefits me physically and mentally.

5:30 pm – 9:00 pm – I get home from school, take a quick shower, then get picked up by one of many friends who leaves for college in a couple days. After we hang out for the night, I come home and create my schedule for the next day.

9:00 pm – 11:30 pm – I make the schedule for the next day, read some of Les Miserables, then listen to some music to wind down. I am currently very much into country music, so that’s normally what I listen to before bed. Then it’s lights out. 

HOME DAY (Thursday 1/21)

7:45 am – 8:15 am – I usually would let myself sleep in a little more on home days, but today I have a lot of work to get done with the PSAT coming up and finals in a couple weeks. 

8:15 am – 9:20 am – I work some more on an anatomy project and eventually finish it. Yay! The project is about our sense of hearing. I wrote a poem describing it and then drew diagrams to help explain it. 

9:20 am – 10:00 am – Normally, we have our student council meetings on Tuesdays, but since we had a long weekend, it’s today. This year, I am Vice President and serve alongside our Student Body President, Charlotte. As a council, we discuss how things are going on campus and we talk about a new proposal on how to get people more involved. 

10:30 am – 12:00 pm – I have Anatomy class with Mrs. Bartel via Zoom. Today, we finish up our study of the eye. We just had a lab where we dissected a cow eye, which was cool!

12:00 pm – 3:30 pm – I have this big gap in between class and practice on home days. I spend some of this time eating lunch, working on trigonometry test corrections, reading Les Miserables, and also working on my history homework that’s due tonight.

3:45 pm – 5:30 pm – Today, we have team pictures at practice. We spend a majority of our time on that but still get in a good workout. It’s our last practice of the week, so it feels good to have put in the effort for the week and get our off day on Friday.

5:30 pm – 9:30 pm – I come home, talk to my sister for a little bit about our plans for the weekend, shower, and eat dinner with my family. After dinner I work on my Spanish homework, finish Les Miserables (yes, the whole thing!), and work on my poetry recitation. 

9:30 pm – 10:30 pm – I went to bed a little earlier tonight because lately with all the wind I’ve had bad allergies, so I wanted to get a good sleep. After getting ready for bed, I look over my poem one more time, talk on the phone with my boyfriend for a little, plan my schedule for Friday, and then get to sleep. 

These are typical school and home days for me this year. I usually try to get as much done in free periods and Thursdays so I can have a more open weekend. I am so thankful for great friends at school that I can work on homework with in free periods while having a fun time. SLOCA has equipped me with great study habits that will continue to help me through the rest of high school and college.    

It is always such a blast to hear what our High Schoolers are up to and how they balance school and play. Thank you so much, Karena for sharing with us today.