I hear all the time (and sometimes I’m the one saying it), “I don’t want to do this right now.”
There’s no escaping it. There will always be times when you’re forced to do something that simply doesn’t interest you. In school, it might seem like this is all you spend your time doing. Regardless, though, you still have to do it – unfortunate as that might seem.

So how do you deal with schoolwork that feels mundane and irrelevant? In other words, how do you make yourself work through assignments that in no way relate to what you plan to do in the future?
Personally, I have three answers to this, and each of them has worked at different times to help me get through school with my motivation (more or less) intact.

Any of this could be relevant someday; stay focused on it now to benefit yourself in the future 

I know it’s absurd to think that everything that you’re being taught will one day have a use, but it’s equally absurd to think that none of it will. Whether it’s weeks or months or years from now, at least some of what you learn in high school will serve a purpose – and serve you well. You never know what you might end up doing, and anything could be relevant someday. It might be difficult for you to believe that, especially considering that in a previous post, I spoke about a similar idea in an almost opposite way. In that post, I wanted to highlight the fact that not everyone is great at everything or will use everything they learn in high school. I stand by that, but I also know that, on the flip side, there are things that we learn in high school that might seem irrelevant at the time but are useful later.
 
There have been many times in college that I’ve looked back at what I learned in high school and realized just how much I gained from my classes. Sure, there were the useless bits of information – I will never in my life need to know the difference between igneous and sedimentary rocks (I hope) – but there are also classes that serve as a solid background for my studies now. For example, I took a government class in my senior year of high school, which focused on the political system and the way in which the government is set up and functions. At the time, I had absolutely no interest in government or politics, and even though I found parts of the class interesting, overall, I assumed I’d need to know very little about the setup of the federal and state governments. But now I’ve decided to go to law school. I’m taking a course called “Law and Politics,” and some of what we discuss in class and need to know for tests and papers is content I already know because I learned it in high school.
 
This is only one example, but I could give countless others to help you see just how much you will take from your high school education despite what you might think now. Thinking of my classes this way in high school got me through many assignments because, even though I felt that I would never need to know the things I was learning, I had plenty of teachers telling me how they continuously use random knowledge sets to their benefit. Especially in college, I’ve constantly assumed that everything I’m learning will be useful – if even just for a test or to apply it to another class. If you can think of what you learn that way – as a means of understanding a bigger picture or succeeding in a class in the long run, this just might help you work up the motivation to finish an irksome assignment on time. It’s not the easiest way to motivate yourself, and it’s definitely not the most attractive, but it’s something to keep you going if these next two options don’t help you stay focused.

Find something interesting about what you’re learning, and make the most of it 

You might be thinking this just sounds like a half-baked excuse for advice – if you don’t want to do something, there’s a good chance it isn’t interesting, right? But everything that is boring or annoying or just unpleasant either has interesting aspects or can be made interesting. It’s a cheesy concept, but it’s honestly helped me get through classes in which I struggled to pay attention – science, math and history, to name a few – and finish the work assigned for those classes. In classes like these that hold no interest for me, I’m always searching for something to keep my attention.
 
While in class, I focus on things like the way a teacher speaks and presents and the way other people react to what the teacher says. While doing homework and in class, I try to pick out small bits of information that are interesting and focus on those when I can; I find something that interests me within what I’m learning, even if it’s small, and I latch onto that. In an economics class in my senior year of high school, I was bored so often. There was no getting around it. But at least once a class, the teacher would say something that either related to me or intrigued me or went against something I had previously thought was true. I really knew nothing about economics, and I really didn’t want to, but I ended up enjoying several sections of what we learned because I focused not on the boring aspects (of course you have to pay attention to those to understand them) but on the parts of our discussions and lectures that interested me. When I felt I could let my thoughts drift a bit – if the teacher was still explaining something I understood or had stopped to answer a question that I knew the answer to, or at any time where I knew I wouldn’t miss something I needed to know – I would think about that small piece of information that interested me and try to apply it by scribbling little notes all over my notebook. Ultimately, I found that fixating on pieces of information this way helped me understand the concepts to which I paid so much attention as well as the concepts surrounding them, which usually played a role in my understanding.
 
Sometimes, though, I never “find” anything that interests me, so I make something up. I take each question and wonder how I could make my answer as extreme as possible – the wildest answer my teachers might get but still correct. I try to think of ways that something my teacher is saying might not work or be true. I treat my homework with a sense of sarcasm when it doesn’t interest me, making most of what I do into a joke. Even if it means I’m not taking a concept seriously, it at least means I’m paying attention to it, and it means that I might be able to push through an assignment by making my answers more of a joke, more sarcastic, and as outlandish as possible (though still right). But that could just be my sense of humor talking. If making a joke out of your work doesn’t help you get it done, try taking it more seriously. Try finding something about it that interests you because it’s so true you can apply it to your own life or so wrong that you can find no application. Overall, the goal when finding or making something interesting is to make the time go faster and to hopefully give you something that you can think about to keep you focused.
 
Keep the end goal in mind
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What you have to remember while you’re getting through school is that you’re not just getting through to get out. You’re getting through to get somewhere better – to open the door at the end that will lead you to your future. No matter what’s behind that door, keeping it in sight is always helpful. All through high school, I was kept motivated a lot of times by the thought of graduation and college. I knew that, at the time, it didn’t really matter if I failed or succeeded, but I wanted to go to college, so I knew that my GPA mattered – I knew that how I performed in high school would affect my chances of getting where I wanted to go later. This was probably the best method of motivation I had and still have. It helps you focus on why you’re doing something; and when you have a reason, it’s much easier to do it.
 
If you’re hoping to get into college, if you’re hoping to get a job that expects you to have a relatively high GPA, or if you’re planning on doing anything that will want proof that you can succeed in an environment where you have to do things you don’t want to and you have to complete assignments on time (pretty much every job, ever), then what you do in high school matters. How you do in high school matters – at least to some extent. So keep this in mind always. If you can’t wait to graduate, don’t just think about not being in school. Think about what’s beyond that. Think about what comes next for you and how you can ensure that you get there. Because if you stop caring about where you want to go and focus only on why you want to be done with high school, chances are you won’t do as well as you could – because you won’t have any motivation to do well.
 
-Hope Swedeen
 
How do you stay motivated to stay focused and finish your work? How do you make learning interesting for yourself?

Auctioneers usually run estate sales, selling all of the contents of a home, though they can also host small auctions if they choose to do so. Auctioneers will often sell personal property such as cars, antiques, and artwork, but they are also often responsible for selling real estate. This can include foreclosed homes, closed business and restaurants, properties of landlords who want to sell a large number of properties at once, and more.

Responsibilities of an auctioneer:

Auctioneers are hired by families or individuals, usually to sell a large number of items that couldn’t easily be sold independently. They sign a contract with their clients that stipulates payment rates, the number of workers the client will provide to prepare for and work on the day of the auction (or the number of workers the auction service will provide if the client chooses not to), and advertising costs. Auctioneers are responsible for advertising auctions as well, which involves creating a sale bill to publicize the highlights, or items that might be of the most interest, and updating the auctioneer service’s website to include information about each new auction and the items to be auctioned off. Essentially, auctioneers should be able to negotiate contracts, having a firm handle on what a client contract should look like and include so that they can agree on the services they will provide and which aspects of the sale will be taken care of by the client.

Once auctioneers have agreed on a contract with a client and advertised the event, they must write the terms and conditions of purchase for the items being sold so that bidders are aware of what a purchase will entail before making a bid. Auctioneers may also need to supply a staff if they agree to do so. This would include a runner, someone to display items during auction; a clerk, someone to record transactions with auction attendees and make sure all bidder numbers and item descriptions are recorded accurately; and a cashier, someone to tally bidders’ bills at the end of auctions and accept payments for items that were bid on. Strong communication skills are needed for an auction to run smoothly, as the clerks need to report accurate bidder and item information, and this must match the bills paid to the cashiers. Auctioneers must also be able to control disputes between bidders, if need be, and communication is key here as well.

​Following an auction, auctioneers keep payments in escrow, meaning they withhold the property sold in the auction until it’s certain that buyers have sufficient funds to cover their purchases and that their checks won’t bounce. An understanding of finances is imperative to be an auctioneer, not only for making sales but also for negotiating contracts and determining how much and at what rate you will be paid for your services.

How much would you earn?

Most auctioneers charge a commission, which means that they agree in their contracts to receive a set percentage of the sale of items. This percentage varies based on the price and type of item, so a real state property might have a lower commission rate of 5 percent while an auctioneer receives 40 percent on the sale of artwork. Overall, the income of an auctioneer is highly variable based on location and what you’re selling. However, Indeed.com reports that the average annual income for auctioneers in New York City is $63,000.

Requirements to become an auctioneer:

Many auctioneers begin on their career path as runners or clerks. Although in New York State there is no law requiring auctioneers to be licensed, many states do require you to be licensed before you can hold auctions. To earn your license, typically, you can either be an apprentice to a licensed auctioneer, or you can complete courses at a community college to earn your license. There are also accredited auctioneer academies that you can attend for programs (that are only about a week or so in length) to help you learn about becoming an auctioneer, but taking these courses will not earn you your license. If you intend to become an auctioneer in New York, this could be beneficial to you (especially if you decide to not get your licence) so that you can learn the ins and outs of auctioneering before taking on the task of creating your own auction service. There is also typically an auctioneering test that must be taken, which varies by state as with the licenses.

Perhaps the most interesting requirement to become an auctioneer is the ability to chant. This can be learned through an apprenticeship, auctioneer academy programs, and auctioneer classes. But chanting isn't universally used; there are some who never chant during an auction while others only chant, speaking swiftly for upwards of eight hours straight. So while it’s important to learn how to chant to become an auctioneer, it’s not necessary. In the same way, most auctioneers are trained in appraisal so that they can evaluate the worth of items they are selling, but it is by no means a requirement to have a license in appraisal or even be trained. Some auctioneers have hired appraisers to do this work for them instead.
 
-Hope Swedeen

What are your thoughts on pursuing a career in auctioneering? Is this a profession you could see yourself enjoying and profiting from?

The Student Gallup Poll is a survey taken every year that reaches hundreds of thousands of students. It was developed in 2009, and since then, almost 4 million students in grades five through 12 have responded to the survey, answering questions about their experiences in school. The fall 2015 Student Gallup Poll alone reached over 900,000 students in 3,300 schools nationwide. This expansive survey is used as a means of showing educators how students in general feel about school so that they might create programs and adopt or improve teaching strategies to help students better meet the four criteria by which the survey measures student success: engagement, hope, entrepreneurial aspiration, and career and finance literacy. These four criteria are then broken down by the questions students are asked in the survey.

The first two criteria, engagement and hope, are related in that the two factors interact to determine what a student’s experience in school might be like. Overall, it appears that students who are engaged and hopeful while in school can be compared to those who are the opposite – disengaged and discouraged. Students who are engaged and hopeful appear to be more likely to pursue a college education, miss school less frequently, and not only earn better grades but also feel that they are successful in school in general than students who are disengaged and discouraged.

It might seem obvious that students who feel that their education is serving them well and who might enjoy being in school would be more successful, but what does it take to be an engaged and hopeful student? Is it really as difficult as it seems to be a student who meets the criteria that say “you’ll be successful?”

1. Cappex

Cappex was the website I always found myself using when searching and applying for scholarships, and this was due mainly to the site’s ease of use and the way that it looked. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a scholarship website in that it generates lists of scholarships based on information you choose to input. What made this my go-to site was the simple fact that I liked using it and that, when I first began searching for scholarships, I was also searching for and evaluating colleges. Cappex, though it is primarily a scholarship search engine, houses information on all U.S. colleges and universities, including where they rank in various categories like financial aid and housing compared to other schools. Other Cappex users can also leave reviews of colleges (and leaving reviews allows them to enter a scholarship given by Cappex), so if someone visits a college or even attends that school, you’ll be able to see what they have to say about it.

Both the college and scholarship search features are enhanced and really only made possible if you create an account with a profile that is as accurate as possible. The site will ask you to include information in your profile that is meant to help it “match” you to scholarships and schools. For example, when matching you to scholarships, your home town will be used to determine whether you’re eligible for scholarships that are only available to people in a certain location. Your profile will also help you narrow down your school search by using information about how far you want to be from home when you go to school, how much of your tuition you hope to have covered, what type of housing you’d prefer, and so on. Once you fill in your profile, you can use the site for both evaluating and comparing schools, and applying for the scholarships that “match” your profile.
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2. Fastweb

I began using this site at the same time that I began using Cappex, and I quickly found that they are very similar. If you use either Cappex or Fastweb to search for scholarships, you probably won’t have any reason to look for scholarships on the other, as the results you’ll get from building a profile on one will be the same as the results you get from the other. I ended up not using Fastweb after I realized this because I’d have the exact same scholarship matches on both sites, and that was really the only use I had for Fastweb at the time. However, Fastweb does offer some resources for career planning as well as articles to help you learn about aspects of college or even professional life with which you might not be familiar. I’ve seen articles, for example, about making smart decisions when creating a monthly personal budget, how to finance your college education, and tips for interviews. So if your college search is over and you’re interested in learning more about where you’re headed, Fastweb is a great alternative to Cappex and will serve you even better.

3. College Board

Rather than building a profile, College Board asks you to fill out a fairly short questionnaire that will ask you much of the same information that Fastweb and Cappex ask to compile a list of scholarships for which users are eligible. College Board might be a good place to start if only because it’s the site you’ll be using to sign up, possibly practice for, and pretty much do anything related to the SAT. It’s a way to cut down on the number of sites with which you need to get acquainted, as you’ll be using it anyway, and it’s a pretty large database, offering over 2,000 award opportunities and giving away about $3 billion every year. If you’re thinking about signing up, you can always browse the scholarships alphabetically to get a feel for what the site will look like and the types of scholarships you might see, which isn’t as easy to do on other scholarship sites like Fastweb or Cappex.

4. Unigo

Unigo, which merged with Scholarship Experts, is probably the easiest site to use when just taking a quick look at the scholarships or even types of scholarships available. They are broken down by category and the broken down even further from there. There are “merit-based scholarships,” for instance, which are further broken down into “leadership” and “first-generation” scholarships. The categories are easy to locate and browse through, so, just like with College Board, if you’re unsure if this site is for you, look through it first. It’s another site that will ask you to build a profile, though a less in-depth one than on Cappex, as it is only for Scholarships, and you’ll be matched to scholarships to save you time. I’ve never used this site to search for scholarships myself, as the two companies just recently merged and created the site, but it seems to be very easy to use.

5. Scholarships.com

I used this site heavily at first but then drifted away from it, as other sites seemed more worth using. It’s a site that could use an update because a lot of its pages are very text-heavy and filled with lists of information, but it’s still extremely useful despite being a little overwhelming. Just like Cappex, Scholarships.com matches you to both scholarships and schools. However, it doesn’t operate in quite the same way. The site offers a “college matchmaker” that asks several questions to understand the characteristics of a school you might be interested in attending. This isn’t as personalized or detailed as Cappex’s system, so I always preferred to use Cappex for this part of my search. The Scholarship matches are still useful though, and although the matching system is not as in-depth as any of the others I’ve mentioned so far, I did find some scholarships to apply to that were different than what I was able to find on other sites, so it’s worth taking a look at what’s available. Like with Unigo, you can browse through scholarships by category before creating an account to get a feel for what’s available.

6. Scholarship Points

This is the most unique scholarship site on this list, as it operates in a completely different way. Rather than matching you to scholarships or asking you to build a profile of any kind, the site is built around the idea of earning points. Rather than completing applications for scholarships, the points you earn on the site are used to enter drawings to become a scholarship winner. There are only a few scholarships offered each month, but you can enter using your points as many times as you’d like, increasing your chances of winning the more points you spend. It’s definitely a site for those of you who have hours to spend on the computer, but if you’re someone who needs to spend more time offline, then I wouldn’t suggest this site.
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It’s pretty much luck-of-the-draw scholarships, but because there is a way to increase your chances, it can be almost like gambling. Instead of paying money to play, though, you’re paying with time. The site asks you to earn points by using other websites to complete surveys, play games, and even apply for scholarships, and you’re promised hundreds of points for each task you complete. You then spend your points on whatever scholarships you think you’d like to try to win, and the idea is that there is less competition for the lower amounts, so if you have fewer points, you should aim small. I only used it for about two weeks because in order to earn points, I’d often have to create accounts on several other sites that would then be sending me emails every day, and I eventually got fed up with the number of sites that had access to my information and deleted them all. Had I gone on for more than two weeks, though, I’m sure the email storm would have been so much worse. So if you’re thinking this site is for you, just be sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.

-Hope Swedeen

What scholarship search engines do you use, and what types of scholarships do you tend to pursue? What is some advice you might have for applying for scholarships?