Stress in the Summer?

I have found over the past year that one way to reduce stress is to talk about it. Now I know it seems obvious, but I don't like to burden other people with my thoughts...and I don't handle school stress too well.

Here I am, on August 4th at 4:53 with a knot in the bottom of my stomach because I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. I am scheduled to take AP Calculus for my senior year of high school, with this class is a summer math project due August 6th....
now one reason why I didn't start the project was because I had been planning to switch out of the class anyways...but I didn't e-mail my conseulor until three days ago, and she hasn't e-mailed me back.

So do I go ahead and do the project? (That is the option I don't want to do, probably because it is the hardest)
Or not do it? Because I want to switch out of the class....partially because I will not take the AP test. But should I? Will it help me prepare for college?
But what if I can't switch out? Not doing the project will have a severe impact on my grade. And what if I'm not challenging myself hard enough? What if I could do it? And taking the easy route will some how blow up in my face later down the road? Like taking the easier math class will inhibit me from getting into college, a good college, or a college program that I want?


See what I mean? Summer stress...
I never had this stress back oh say in the second grade...because I didn't care about school. Maybe this stress is my way of caring?!

Recent Books

I have recently come across two books that I absolutely love....The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
I can't put The Help down and as a mandatory book, Things Fall Apart isn't half bad.
I am about halfway through each of these novels and so far love the story plots/
The Help is narrated by three women stuck in the midst of the 1950's. Taking place in the south, these women talk about their experiences of racial tension during the Civil Rights movement.
Things Fall Apart takes place in a traditional village in Nigeria. What I find so fascinating is this African culture. This book gives a first hand look into traditional Nigerian culture, that I wouldn't be able to learn about or experience anywhere else.

I feel that the summer gives us the motivation and the curiosity to find new books to read, and finish those books that we never got around to.

I never got to finish
Wuthering Heights
The Whistling Season
The Mayor of Casterbridge
and I can't wait to start
As I Lay Dying
and
the second novel to SouthBound, Walking Home which is the return trip of two sisters nicknamed the 'Barefoot Sisters'. On the famous Appalachian Trail.

Have a safe and heathly week
-Kathleen

Memories: Post-soccer practice

We all have funny little memories of when we were younger. Some might be the quirky things we used to do, others might be the friends we had or the places we would go.
Here's one of mine:
I have played soccer either Rec or Travel since I was four years old and my dad had been my coach for all those twelve years. Sometimes after games and practices we used to go get some food or a little treat or beer (in my dad's case). I wanted to be a 'big' girl so I used to always walk in with him to the store. Young little me would walk around in my soccer uniform staring at all the bottles of alcohol thinking how pretty the bottles were. People used to stare at me, and as I got older they started to stare for a different reason. There was this one instance when I was little......I guess I was about 6-8 years old and after my dad paid for his six-pack, I grabbed the bag from him to be a 'big' girl or a 'helper' to help my dad carry his purchase out (like I have done with my mom), however the cashier stopped us and said, 'Sir she can't carry that out.' Thinking back on that now, my dad and I crack up. If your having trouble picturing the hilariousness of this memory think of any small girl trying to help her dad out by trying to illegally carry alcohol out of a beer store.

Isn't our childhood what shapes us for the future?
Well I know what I will be like....
helpful! of Course!!!!

My family vacation to Alaska

So after school let out, my family went on a vacation to visit the west coast - and I got to swim in the Pacific Ocean for the first time! We stayed in Washington and Alaska and Victoria, (British Columbia) Canada.

I got to see, Seattle and Juneau, Skagway, and Ketichan.

I absolutely loved the mountains and the cool air wasn't bad.

Even though the sun was never really bright, I don't think I would mind living out there.....

Update

Very resently, I changed my background and upon doing so...it kinda switched things around and messed some pictures up. But I guess if I play around with the pictures some more I'll get them to work.
So how's your summer been? Mine? Well sadly to me it doesn't feel like summer
plus it isn't really that relaxing because in the following year I have to
1. Volunteer 30 hours
2. Do my Gold Award
3. Finish my summer math project
4. Read my summer reading books (two of them)
5. Apply to college(s)
6. And hope for the best!

Have a happy and heathly summer!

The End of my Junior Year

So today was the last day of school, the last day of finals, the last day of being a Junior. In just a couple of months I will have to apply to college, go to my last winter and spring concert, play my last season of soccer, and run my last season of track. And I can't believe. I don't feel like a Senior, I feel too young and immature....Seniors are old, and well put together...that doesn't explain me! But except it I must, for everyday of Senior year, is one less day at my high school. And before I know it, I to will be graduating.
Walking into the stadium to the tune of fanfare and pomp and circumstance (never again will I have to volunteer with the orchestra and play it for older kids)
Looking up into the stands
And the cheering and the excitement
Speakers then speak, then names are called..]
then MY name is called
closing remarks, the moving of the tassel, and the throwing of the hats
The awwww its over
or the yikes! college has just begun
The tears and the crying and the pictures and the hugging
And knowing that some people I went to school my whole live with, from Elementary school on, I'll never meet again....
sigh but I am just a New Senior, or an old Junior trying to enjoy her last summer before graduating public education.

I remember Freshman year now, all the Seniors told me, you know it goes really fast, but I never thought that would be me. No, I thought, it won't be that way for me! It will go long and take forever....but I was wrong, with the blink of an eye I am a Senior.....
I don't even remember Freshman year anymore...sophomore year is a blurr and junior year is unbelievable...I feel...has junior year really ended? Like for real? Really ended? All that hard work I put in is it just for nothing? Or am I really that much smarter?

So the count now begins
I have taken Senior pictures,
and today was the last day of school
everything else I do for the next year....will be the last time I am doing it

-Kathleen

I'm 17 (late)

Okay so I am now 17!!!!!
(well have been for two weeks now)
but wow, I now have my driver licence and am one step closer to becoming an adult.
Oddly enough, I feel to young to be 17, as if it were an extremely old age. I feel too innocent, and immature to be called 17, and I certainly am not ready for adulthood next year!

And, last week I attended my high school's Junior Evening (prom) and boy did I have a blast (dancing the night away like the dancing queen I now am) !!!!

Also, I found two four leaf clovers today!!! So far May has been stressful, but the fun is soooo worth it!!
I hope all of you out there are enjoying May as much as I (omg it is almost over already?)!!!!

P.S. I got my SAT scores back (which are the vain of all High Schooler's existence!) and I did fairly well on them for having taken them only for the first time. I guess I will get into college after all, but now....what major will I go for?