What A Start to the New Year...

     The new year did not start out well. I returned to school after winter break with high expectations. I was hoping the second semester of senior year would be much better than the first. Oh, was I wrong. As I began to prepare for my dreaded midterms, I began to feel overwhelmed with fatigue, at just the mere thought of studying. The more I thought about studying, the worse I felt. The Saturday before midterms, I started with a cough, and by Sunday, all I wanted to do was sleep. To make matters worse my lower back was achy and my throat felt like I was swallowing razorblades. I slept all day Sunday, and my dad struggled to wake me up to continue studying. Shortly after getting up, I would doze off again. It was as if a bus had run me over.
     Monday, January 14, I made a noble attempt to go to school to review for midterms. Unfortunately, I slept through all my classes including lunch - which is highly unlike me. I left that day feeling even worse; however, that did not stop me from trying to study. That evening, both my father and tutor were telling me there was no way I would be attending school the next day. After returning from my tutoring session I hit the wall, and even I had to admit that I was not healthy enough to take my per-calculus exam scheduled the next day.
     Instead, I laid helpless on the couch for the next three days. These three days consisted of sleeping, eating nothing, and trying to find energy to drink. Finally, on Thursday I went to see my doctor and I received the terrible news that I had the flu and it was too late to get the medication for it. I also could not take any midterm exams that Friday or Saturday and was now looking at "hell week". In addition to a full class schedule, I would now have to make up all my midterms. Just my luck!
     I tried desperately to feel better and get my energy back so I could study and get all my midterms made up. Playing catch-up was exhausting and I looked forward to the day I finished my exams and was back on track. Well, once again, my plan did not work out accordingly. I completed three midterms, while I continued to lose energy. My dad realized something was still not right. He scheduled another appointment. My complete lack of energy and failure to bounce back had him very worried. At this follow up appointment, my doctor was concerned that my symptoms mimicked those of mono and/or pneumonia so she ordered a blood test. As my luck continued, I was diagnosed with mono and was delayed another week. Two more midterms were hanging over my head as well as a ton of class work. Oh, what a great January.
     My bad luck was not done yet. As I was on my way to school to study for my economics exam on Tuesday, my car sputtered and died at an intersection near school. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, to say the least. Mr. Carney was kind enough to stop and help push my car off to the shoulder. This kindness was very much needed to keep me calm as we crossed two lanes. As Spartans zoomed by, I became increasing steamed. Luckily my dad had off from work and met me. Later that day, I found out that it could not be fixed for less than it was worth. I was especially annoyed because it took me the entire summer before junior year to find and purchase this car, and I do not want to go through that again. Oh what a great start to the year 2013.
    

Procrastination

      Why do I always seem to procrastinate in doing assignments for school or simple tasks my dad asks me to do around the house? Every time I have a big project to do or just homework to do over the weekend or just vacuuming for my dad, I always seem to wait till the last moment to do it. And every time I end up procrastinating, I always regret it, but I still do it. I do not understand it because every time I get too stressed out because I decided to take too long to do my assignments and they end up being very long and I never have the right amount of time to finish. Even with these blogs I procrastinated doing them. I would think about doing them but then would say to myself, "I have enough time to finish these blogs, I don't need to worry about them." Look at me now...waiting till the last night to finish my blogs. If I did them two or three weeks ago I would be able to be doing something else like playing video games or hanging out with my friends or watching TV. I guess the main reason why I do this is because I want to do play video games or hang out with my friends before doing my homework because that is obviously more fun. In doing this, it only puts pressure on myself and sometimes shows in the results of the assignment.
      In the past few weeks, all you heard on the news was how the government was going over the fiscal cliff. Our law makers were procrastinating for over a year. Due to their actions and their last minute solution, they only put off spending cuts and the debt ceiling for a few more months. What will they do in that amount of time? Will they actually do something to fix the problem or will they go and procrastinate some more? Are they acting like servants to the people who elected them or are they servants to their own egos? Their procrastination doesn't just effect themselves but it also effects the whole nation. Stock prices have gone down because of tax and spending fears. How is this helping or economy recover? In my personal opinion, I believe that they should stop their procrastination and find a solution that helps the country become a leader in the world economy.

Senior Year

When I was a freshman and looked up to the upper class men, I always thought that being a senior would be the coolest thing about high school. I mean whats better than being the oldest in the school and having everyone look up to you and not having to worry about the older kids picking on you? Don't get me wrong, those are some pretty nice things about being a senior, but other then that, my senior year hasn't been too great. I mean being 18 and being able to do a lot more with my friends and having a lot more freedom is great but the stress from most of my classes and applying to colleges is making it hard for me to enjoy my senior year. Everyone I talked to said that senior year was going to be my most favorite year and most memorable year at St. Marks, and it will be, but the pressure of getting good grades and trying to get into college is making it harder for me to enjoy my last year as a Spartan. Out of the six classes I have this year, I only look forward to going to three of them. The rest of my classes I could live without. This isn't because of who I have as a teacher for each class, it's because no matter what I do, I don't understand the class or I just don't like the course. My least favorite class this year is Economics. I have no idea why I chose to take this class in the first place. Most of the time in that class, I have no clue what is going on. I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't understand the information. This class stresses me out because no matter how long I study or how well I take notes, I still can't  understand most of the information. It's like another language to me. English class is another class this year that is giving me a hard time. I know that all of the research and writing will help me with college courses but it's just not one of my favorite things to do. I'm almost half way done my final year at St. Marks and for the rest of my time as a senior in high school, i'm going to think more positively about all my classes and hopefully that will help me look at all my classes and the rest of the year differently because I know this will be my best year at St. Mark's High School.

Back to School

Going back to school after winter break, you guessed it, sucks! And not just winter break but going back to school after any long period of time. Everyone was use to going to bed late at night and waking up late in the day to do the same thing over again the next day. We all know as soon as Christmas ends and we are getting ready for the New Year, school is right around the corner, but we don't want to think about it. We might hope that there is a crazy snow storm right before break is over to delay the dreaded day we must return to school. Or we just try and forget that the day is just around the corner, but that just makes it come even faster. On our last day we try and make it count and make it last, but at the end of the day, we have to try and get back into the grove and get ready for school the next day. What really makes going back to school so hard is that it's only for a few days. Why must we go back to school for three days and then have another short little break from school again? This doesn't help us get into the grove again. It just simply gets us right back to where we were before we went back to school. This seems like an endless cycle that we know will happen, but we always try and find a way to brake it and delay our return to the real world in which we would like to take a break from.