Great Googly Moogly!

I sincerely hope I don't have an ulcer before I graduate college, or even high school. My dad always calls me his "future ulcer candidate." And he's 100% right, I'm afraid. I always get so stressed out over school. Here's everything I have due in the middle of February: an English research paper, a U.S. history poster/oral report, a pinata for my Spanish class, WYSE practice tests to prepare for the preliminaries at the beginning of February, and I think sometime soon we're going to be assigned our Rube Goldberg projects in my Physics class. Phew! Now see why I'm stressed?

I know it's my fault I get so stressed. I always expect a lot out of myself. I've always done extremely well in school and I feel like I'll be a complete failure if I mess it all up. I tell myself that because I've made it this far I can't mess it up now. But it's also come to the point where I feel like I'll let everyone else down. Which I know is ridiculous. I know if I don't get a 4.0 they'll still be proud of me. It's just hard once you get in the habit of expecting so much out of yourself to just stop. I know it's not just me, though. One of my friends just went to see a doctor because of his anxiety. But he's got it really bad. Like it's not normal, especially for a seventeen-year-old boy. I think it's just because we've only got a year and a half left of high school and the pressure's on. Everyone (well almost everyone) wants to get a good ACT score, get good grades, and get into a good college. So everyone goes to the extremes (high or low) about everything. I just have to tell myself to stop, breathe, and relax. Usually if I just stop and listen to some music or something I'm fine.

The product of pain, sweat, and tears.

Actually, I'm pretty excited for the pinatas. It comes at the perfect time of year, too. It kind of helps to desress (all though, maybe not for our teacher). We have two and a half weeks to finish our pinatas. (It usually takes a month in the end.) If you're in Spanish 1 or 2 you have to make your own individual pinata. We could choose from Mario, Nemo, Oscar the Grouch, the Roadrunner, or Hello Kitty. I made Mario last year, he's actually still hanging in my room. It's kind of creepy though, I'll wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and see him staring at me... However, if you're in Spanish 3/4 (we don't have big enough class sizes for 3 and 4 so we have to combine them) you can choose whatever you want. You can do it in a group, make it small, medium, or large, or do it on your own. My friends Jana, Kayla, and I decided to do the Ferocious Beast from Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. Have any of you seen it? It surprises me how many people have asked us what it is. I loooved that show when I was little. We started paper-maiching today, we have a small balloon for the head and a medium one for the body. I think it's gonna turn out pretty good. We make our own chinos, those frilly paper things on pinatas. Jana and I are pretty good chino makers, so Kayla will probably be doing body-building. I will definitely post a picture of the finished project.

Now do you remember?

We're supposed to be getting a huge snow storm tonight, so I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow. That way I might have a chance at getting my mountain of school work done. Guess I'd better flush some ice cubes down the toliet, sleep with a spoon under my pillow, and wear my PJs inside out. (Anyone else heard of these superstitions?) Laterrr!