I finished out first term with all A’s, I got a 4.o GPA.  I am pretty proud of myself.  I went to a scout court of honor, my last one!  Woot!  Then I just do my Eagle project, and I am done with this stuff.

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We had our finaly in AP Literature last week, and our final for AP Government is on Wednesday. I hope I do well, but so far I have a very solid 4.0 GPA for the end of term. Hopefully I can keep it up for the reste of this year.

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            Why do we push ourselves to the limit of human abilities?  We are all only human, yet we push ourselves to super-human limits at work and school.  Today, we were taking an essay test in my AP Literature class.  Now, the question was a challenge of course, but it wasn’t anything scary.  We were all nearing the end of the test when I noticed a girl, the valedictorian in fact, crying over her essay, which I could clearly see was not done, and was scribbled out in many places.  She continued to cry until our teacher called time.  At this point she did not turn in her essay, but left the class.  She did not return to get her things for the rest of the class.  I know she has at least four AP classes, and I’m assuming she has six, because of her book load.

            So, again, why do we push ourselves so hard?  Why did this girl push herself to the point of collapse and utter failure?  Do we have some need for success that we are determined to accomplish even if it creates failure?  I have many friends that are just like this girl.  They have created an unreachable standard of what is “acceptable progress” in school.  If you don’t get a certain score, take these certain classes, get so many credits, participate in certain groups, fill out so many applications, and/or go to a certain college, then your life will somehow be tainted and unacceptable.  This obsession with academic excellence is taking over teenagers lives.  There is a widening gap between the high school drop outs and those who are academically achieved.  There is no gray area anymore.  You can’t be mediocre anymore in your school performance.  There is as much a competition among students as there is among parents.  How many have heard or said “Well my kid is doing this activity,” or “My child is part of this club,” or “My kids only go to this prestigious college.”  This is washing over into teenagers mindsets now.  Just the other day I heard someone in my class say that it was his goal never to go to our local community college, because it was his goal to never go there, and he was too good to go there.

            This obsession takes root as our society gets more and more competitive.  At the rate we’re going, associates degrees will be required to even enter the work force at anything above minimum wage.  I am guilty of this, but luckily I simplified my life so I can have the time to do the things that I love, as opposed to only the things I have to do for an education.  I am in the Concert and Jazz Band at my school.  I play on the tennis team.  I have time to write on this blog and personally.  I have time to date girls on a somewhat regular basis.  One friend of mine told me that she stayed up until 2 a.m. every night that week to finish homework for her two math classes.  I asked her what the crap she was thinking taking so many classes.  Her response was obvious.  College.  The saying is brought to mind: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  But at least Jack will have an Doctorates Degree in Astrophysics right?”  But what experiences will Jack have from high school and even college if he only studies himself to death?

            I am definitely not against getting an education!  I am going to college, getting a degree in computer science, and possibly a major in English (for my writing).  But too much of anything is bad for you.  Believe it or not, too many academic classes can be bad for you.  Colleges are looking for well rounded people.  Why do they ask so many questions on college applications, besides what was your GPA and what classes did you take?  They want people that not only excelled in the academic aspects of school, but those who also participated in sports, music, art, etc.  Now, it sounds like I’m contradicting myself, right?  But everyone is required to take x number of classes, right?  Well, why not mix it up a little.  This is where your experiences that shape your life and the choices you make and what kind of person you turn out as come from.  If I only took math and science classes (and English, because it’s required), what kind of person would I turn out as.  I wouldn’t know as well as I do now how to write a paper using rhetoric, or why the eighteenth amendment was created.  If I only focused on one subject, or if I tried to focus on too many subjects to graduate from college before I’m out of high school, then I will be a poorly rounded, or shallowly educated person.  You can’t absorb much from any class when you have so many academic classes that you are depriving a developing and emotional body from sleep and rest.  Yes, there is a difference.  You can sleep at night, but you need to rest too.       Resting can be anything that relieves stress.  Go serve some tennis balls.  Take a computer apart.  Play with your dog.  Go on a long walk.  Take a rest from your academic and working life.  Go hang out with friends.  You might never see them again after this senior year in high school.  Get to know them all a lot better than just asking them what is due in the next class.  Study groups don’t count.  Forget school, work, homework, whatever.  Go have fun!  Yes, that word still exists.  Be kids!  But, you might say, I do have a social life.  I have a girlfriend/boyfriend, and I have 300 friends on Facebook.  Number one, think about how often you go out with your girlfriend/boyfriend, and how long you really think your relationship is going to last.  You might be spending your money on someone else’s wife/husband.  Think about previous relationships.  Remember the stress, fighting, hurt feelings, and hatred.  Then rethink your relationship now.  A lot of stress will be gone if you stick with friendly dates with lots of girls/guys.  Number two, Facebook doesn’t count, so forget it.

            I might sound a little off topic in some parts of this article, but I feel that I have covered the necessary means to lighten your load and relieve your stress.  Perhaps I will touch up on anything I have left out.  Basically, find balance in your life, and don’t be a college zombie.  Choose your life’s path wisely and do what you love to do.  You might not be super rich and get an awesome house with a sweet ride, but you will be doing something that you love to do, and you’ll have millions of memories that you can’t gain from any text book.  Ah, a theme for my paper.  Killing yourself will only bring bad memories of how hard you worked for… a good education.  That’s about it.  You have at least sixty more years left in your life.  Your life is not even close to a fourth of the way over.  The rest of your life is for all the hard work, so you can relax and take a chill pill while you are allowed to have fun.  So go have fun!  Go live life, be balanced, relieve your stress, go to dances, date lots of people, have lots of friends, and make so many memories that it would take a biographer a million years to record them all!

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I luckily had time to go spend time playing tennis tonight with the young men.  I have been working on reading a chapter in my AP Government class and doing notes on my reading since about 1:00 P.M. and I have just barely finished.  I only took a break for dinner and tennis.  I still have news articles to write about, two essays to write, and reading in a pretty good book for AP Language.  It is called Cry, the Beloved Country.  It is a pretty good book.  I hope I can get through this weekend, as I have to work on and finish a research paper for Government in three days.  I have a band concert tomorrow night, so this weekend I will be posting about that and the research paper.  I also have written a process analysis paper on how to become a nerd, which I will post on here when I type a final draft.  I will also finally get hike pictures from when we hiked to the temple on here this coming week.

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I almost went and taught little elementary kids how to play tennis.  But I didn’t.  I had to research for a paper for my AP Government class, then I rushed home to change and get my tennis stuff and realized that I had no idea where we were going to do the service.  I frantically called people to find out where it was, but the activity had already started and I had no idea which elementary school to go to.  I was very sad at this missed opportunity, but hopefully we will go again and teach them again.  So, that’s my story of my almost good deed.

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Homework is taking over my life.  I am glad that I listened to my parents and my boss and only took three AP classes and not five.  It has obviously taken a toll on my other hobbies and my blogging, as I have not posted for quite some time.  I will try to post more on weekends.  Any-who…  I am glad for school, because it gives me something to do with my time, otherwise I’m afraid I would sit at home and surf the internet   I enjoy my classes, especially my literature and language classes.  These classes have given me a new appreciation for reading and a greater skill of writing, which I am most grateful for.  Hopefully the toll will not affect my sleeping patterns on a long term.  I would say it was affecting my social life, but I really didn’t have one to begin with, so this is not a problem.  Thank goodness for cell phones, or else my google calendar and twitter would never get updated!  I only wish I could set up this blog to receive SMS posts… maybe a weekend project!

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