Dear Younger Mikhai Baker,
Most of your middle school career your bad structure and habits lead to missing homeworks, waking up late, not being productive in your day, bad practices, and missing practices which then lead to bad habits which are a headache to break. Now you might have been a great student , Daniel Murphy scholar but your structure could have been a little bit better. What do you mean by structure? What I mean is were you waking when your alarm went off and not pressing snooze, were you waking up with a purpose, was your day productive, were you doing your homework, were you going to sleep at a good time. Ask any student in your class about one of these habits. I guarantee you that they have at least done one of these because everybody has these are all the things majority of middle school students don’t think about but it’s these things that affect the outcome of your grades and lifestyle.
You had 2 horrible years in school where you did dreadful things or didn’t live up your standards. You got bad grades after a bad grade, or F after F, wasn’t turning in homework and if you did you probably cheated. The reason why you did this poorly was because of structure and habits. You would be on Fortnite when you get home for many hours. It was always “one more then I’m getting off” but that one more would turn into 3 more than 6 more then next thing you know it’s 10 o’clock and you’re lethargic. So you would try to do the assignment in the morning and everybody has tried to do that and everybody knows that it is taxing because if you do you will sleep in class or your head is just not in the right state of mind. Also you would want to chat with your friends, be on your phone, etc but because you were rushing the assignment the grade you ached for didn’t turn out to be the grade you wanted.
Do you remember the time in 5th grade? If you and your classmates got a horrible grade, specifically D- to F, your teacher would have our parents sign your homeworks and have you write on the sheet why you got that grade. You couldn’t say you forgot because the teacher would make us call our parents and tell them our grade in front of the class. She did this because she believed that there was no reason for us to get a bad grade on an assignment if you have notes or had time to study. And she was right unless you didn’t understand the homework. What was the reason you didn’t do well when she looked for completion?
Now you have to explain a F to your parents about the consequences of that. These days were not great, You getting the game taken, phone taken, and being on punishment. When I entered 6th grade my mom put a restriction on me so I couldn’t play the game on the weekdays because of how bad I did in 5th and 4th. This restriction was hard because my gamers back in the day know when your friend calls you to get on Fortnite or 2k it is hard to resist the temptation. This restriction might have been the best thing for us; this helped us build structure and habits. Which you needed. BALDY! Or else you will be stuck in the same ways.
Structure was beneficial throughout the years after the restriction. I was able to achieve my goals I set out to do. I kept my room, papers, and clothes organized and also spent more time with friends because my mom became more lenient through 7th and 8th. The structure I built led to habits and the habits carried me to be a straight A student, having the opportunity to go to the school I wanted, and having long lasting memories. My message to you is to build structure because structure is the foundation for good habits and when you have good habits you are going to be able to achieve any goal you have in life. Your habits could be a variety of things like good discipline skills or learning skills. Make sure you establish it RIGHT NOW because later on in life it’s going to get harder and harder to develop these skills. Structure and good habits have. So if I could go back in the past and tell my younger self some advice it would be to build structure and habits because your building without structure is just bricks and your structure without habits is just a plan.
Mikhai Baker – Lake Forest Academy – DMSF Class of 2027