The months of January, February, and March are pretty long for students, as there is not much time off to look forward to. The days are short; weather is cold; and seasonal depression is in full swing. The spring and end-of- year events feel so far away, and it is hard to get through these months.

Seniors are trying to push through and finish the year strongly in order to make it to college. Juniors are trying to make it to Ring. Sophomores and freshmen are trying to make it to June. In the winter months, Senioritis is pretty bad among seniors.

The JC counseling department does their best to help students get through the tougher months of the year. For New Year’s, the counseling department sent out an email to students that challenged them to reflect on the joys in life and find peace within themselves.

However, it’s up to students to find the motivation to get through the year. Between Christmas Break and Spring Break, it may be harder to keep the motivation up to maintain good grades — which may make doing work harder for all students.

Students have made it through the hardest part of the winter: January. January is the worst because it is right after Winter Break, and you feel exhausted because the days are short, and the sun goes down earlier than most students get home from school. However, on the bright side, January does have some days off in comparison to other months of the school year.

Now students have the challenge of getting through the second most challenging part of the winter: February. However, the month is now at its halfway point. February has its own set of challenges because there aren’t many days off, but there is Catholic Schools Week, Valentine’s Day, and now a Sophomore Pinning to look forward to.

Students can stay motivated through setting achievable goals for themselves and actually sticking to these goals. They can set a study goal every day, like setting a time period every evening to do some studying for future assessments for classes.

This can help students with keeping up with their coursework and not falling too far behind in classes that leads to them being even more unmotivated.

Another thing students can do to stay motivated is finding a new hobby to entertain themselves during all of the dead-time during the winter months. Students could try to learn chess or teach themselves to draw to spend time doing things other than either sleeping or wasting time on social media.

Students could also take the time to dive into reading for pleasure to try and be more open to reading more novels for their English classes.

Focusing on self-care is also important to keep motivated during the winter months. Students can practice mindfulness to try and relieve stress in their lives, or they could take time to pamper themselves. In the winter, students need to make the time to focus on mental and physical health.

Even if the winter months are stressful and seem to drag on, students should try their best to stay motivated to make it through to the end of the year. Spring Break will be here before you know it. The days will get longer, and it will be warmer soon as well.