This post is sponsored by FIVE STAR®. All stories and opinions expressed below are honest and unbiased, as always.
I put a bow on my own high school career in 1993. Back then, being bullied over my weight and teased about my lack of luck with the ladies was confined to stairwells and, with whispered jeers, to 7th period study hall. It was rotten but my studies didn’t suffer because of that stress (laziness is what sunk my grades in high school)!
Teenagers today need a different kind of strength, something I thankfully didn’t need to possess, to make it through those tumultuous four years of school and life. Everything teens do and say, and every uncompromising position from picking up books off the floor to coming out of the bathroom after getting their period unexpectedly, can be captured on a smartphone and spread around like wildfire within a couple of clicks. Anything at all can and too often is used against them in the social media court of public opinion. Whereas my shortcomings were mocked within a finite physical space at school, there’s no limit to the stresses today’s kids face. And then you add in the piles of homework and new standardized tests year after year. School can be a stressful minefield for a young person.
Built Strong to Last Long
Sure, it’s the tagline for FIVE STAR® products but really, isn’t that also what we are doing every single day from the time they are born to when we send them out into the big, wide, stressful world on their own? Designed with care, reliable, functional, stylish and strong enough to last. I’m honestly not sure if I’m talking about a Five Star Flex® Hybrid Notebinder® or my two daughters anymore. Who knew parenting and back to school supplies intersected in such a way?
FIVE STAR® products are just as strong and resilient as the teens they are supporting during the grind of another school year through their #StrengthNotStress campaign, and I’m stoked to be a part of it. I hope this post will encourage you to spur your favorite young people on to focus on and share their strengths over the stress of a new school year. In doing so, I asked my 15-year-old about the stress she’s experienced, ahead of the start of her sophomore year of high school. No surprise, she focused not on the social side of the narrow hallway but rather, on the state testing she loathes with the burning hot passion of a thousand suns:
One of the most stressful times of the school year is when high school students start the mandatory standardized state testing process. Teachers add an unnecessary level of stress and worry as they begin to teach straight to the test, caring more about how the results will make the school look to those dishing out funding than if kids are actually learning and evolving as people. It all makes students nervous that they didn’t take enough notes or stressed out because they didn’t memorize as much as they should. Thankfully I don’t too get stressed out before a big test or assignment, but test stress is real and it can have physical effects. When I was taking the standardized test in 6th grade, two kids in my class got so stressed that one threw up and one peed himself. School is hard; tests and homework don’t make it any easier.
As you shop for your teen’s notebooks, binders and composition books this year, reach for the FIVE STAR® options at your local store. Not only do you know they will hold up during the entire school year, survive being tossed into lockers, shoved into backpacks, and flung across their bedroom in anger over a poor test result, but now you know that FIVE STAR® is taking a stand by actively supporting our teens. These are products you can feel good about putting in your shopping cart. Also, all Five Star® products are guaranteed to last all year!*
Here’s a coupon for 10% off and free shipping to make buying a Five Star® 4-inch Capacity Zipper Binder, Five Star Wirebound Notebook and Five Star® College Ruled Reinforced Filler Paper more affordable. Because we don’t want to stress about how much all these back to school supplies are going to cost us either 😉
*Guarantee good for one year from date of purchase and does not cover misuse or abuse.
