So far my columns have been a little disjointed, like I’m not totally sure what I’m even telling all of you. I’m still trying to get into the groove of things. Thus far, I’ve started writing something and I’ve just rolled with it, and it’s pretty much led each time to a high-and-mighty “I’m a senior and I know what’s what” kind of thing. I think my subconscious is telling me something, and therefore telling all of you something. I’m not quite sure what that is, but when I find out, I’ll let you know.

This time I want to tell you a story. It’s around this time that stress starts to kick in with all of the midterms and the halfway point where you know you have nine short weeks to pick up the grades you aren’t entirely happy with. I know that stress all too well.

My sophomore year I overloaded on tough classes and I was drowning. Some students can handle this kind of thing; balancing the homework and everything else that life just likes to toss your way. Some just have the talent and the time. I, on the other hand, was not one of those few. I was driving myself crazy with stress, and found myself often times thinking, “I have too much to do. I’m just going to not do it, what damage will one bad grade do?” Well, I’ll tell you this: it destroyed my 4.0 grade point average and caused a snowball of both complacency and regret.

I was doing my AP European History essay block, in which you have a few weeks to write four essays, which is a nightmare for procrastinators like me. On the last night, as most others did, I spent hours on a bunch of essays. I found myself calorie-loading, writing to the dull roar of the Grey’s Anatomy I had playing in my room, (which I think caused me to write some pretty dramatic and cliff-hanging essays, if I do say so myself) and every once in a while, I’d look at a little note I had that kept reminding me how good an A would feel in this class. The next day, after I turned in my essays and went through a school day looking and feeling like death, I walked into my room and saw another note. My dad wrote it and left it on my desk after seeing the piece of paper that kept me motivated. He wrote “Remember to have some fun. Pressure to get an A is not fun.” That note made my day. I did end up getting A’s on all four of those essays, and from that point on I kept my dad’s words on my bulletin board to look at every time I feel like school is getting the best of me.

I guess what I’m saying is that when school’s getting you down, stressing about it isn’t going to do you a whole lot of good either. Staying up until three in the morning doing your math isn’t going to help you with that test you have in English. Prioritize; switch your homework so you don’t drive yourself crazy doing one assignment for too long, and get some sleep. And remember to have some fun.