I have a ton of assignments that are due this week and an upcoming test? Seniors really only have this upcoming week of regular schoolwork and then the following week is finals week, so I’m really confused on why we’re still learning stuff and having tests. We should be close to wrapping up by now. I don’t know about you, but I am a very stress-out-about-everything type of person so knowing that I have to worry about a test next week while also preparing for finals the following week makes me stress out even more than normal. It’ll be a bitter-sweet feeling finishing school because it will be nice getting all the work over with and enjoy summer, but it’ll also be very sad. Right now I’m really trying to prioritize everything. I only have 2 finals at Marquette, but the finals I am actually worried about are at Wildwood. I am hoping that they won’t be too much, but I am also a terrible test taker so it sucks. I always feel like I have to prepare 3x more than what my other classmates take to study or prepare for. Then at the same time I also feel like no matter how hard I study for something I always end up not doing as good as I expected to. I am trying my best to get organized right now and finish strong. I hope everyone does great on their finals! We’re almost at the finish line! You got it, finish off strong!

For those of you that were at school on time today the Mustangs For Mental Health Club at Marquette were handing out Mental Health Resource sheets. We were standing at the main entrance and by the pool entrance handing them out, and we made sure everyone got one. With it being Mental Health Awareness month I just figured it would be important to touch base on how important it is. We always say, “It’s okay to not be okay.” This is true, not one single person is perfect and can say that they have never struggled in their life before. I have had a lot of ups and downs and I acknowledge that sometimes it’s impossible to go through it by yourself. I had the roughest year of my life last year, my Junior year, but with the right resources and people by my side I was able to get through it. You can, anyone can get through it. No matter the situation or how lonely you feel, you are NEVER alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or to reach out and talk to someone. Your physical health is important, but your mental health should be just as important. Your brain deserves love and care, so every once in a while take a break. Let yourself breathe and relax. With finals coming up do a couple of breathing exercises or maybe meditation. Find what works best for you and try to incorporate it into your daily life. Just don’t be afraid to reach out. There’s help out there and you can make it through, I promise it gets better.

Yay! It’s Friday! So my day started off pretty good honestly. I woke up at a decent time and managed to leave my house early. I was working on homework in the morning, and then I had to hand out flyers at 7:45 AM. The day went by pretty quick, and as most of you know, seniors got their caps and gowns today. I was sitting in class with my best friend during 4th hour right before 3rd lunch. We were mid-conversation when the bell rang and I literally grabbed all my stuff quickly and she did too. She didn’t even remember that caps and gowns were going to be handed out today, so it was extremely funny but we just started sprinting to the theater. The whole point of running was so we could be the first people and wouldn’t have to wait in the line a long time. Well, turns out we both had unpaid fines. I had money with me because I knew I had fines, no doubt. However, they said I had to wait until I turn my book in. So I’ll just be getting my cap and gown sometime next week. I just thought it was the funniest thing ever though because we probably hadn’t ran that fast since maybe freshman year and then we didn’t even end up being able to receive our caps and gowns. She tripped on a door, almost fell down the stairs and cut someone off completely and it was all for nothing. I could not stop laughing so hard.

It honestly hadn’t even began to hit me last month that we only had about 1 month left of school, but now it’s completely hit me. In fact, it’s honestly hit me like a bus. Or maybe a train. Point is, it’s completely hit me. And let’s face it, I’m sad. I honestly never understood the people that talked about how bad they wanted to leave high school or go far away from St. Louis. I mean, I know obviously everyone has different experiences, but my thing is why not enjoy the moment? I know it’s extremely cheesy and so cliche, but it’s also extremely true. We spend our whole lives waiting to finish elementary school, waiting to go to middle school, waiting to go to high school, waiting to get our license, waiting to go to college, waiting to turn 21 and all for what? Our whole lives are basically just a sequence of waiting for things. We never stop to “smell the roses” because everyone is so preoccupied worrying for the future. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty as charged. Honestly, this whole week I have just been thinking back to how fast high school went by and about how much I will miss Marquette in general. I’m going to miss my teachers, my friends, the library, the hallways and all of the unfamiliar faces I would see in the halls. I loved everything about it, and no matter what anyone thinks I honestly think it’s an amazing school and am so grateful for the high school experience it has given me.

This isn’t The Beatles’ best album I would say, but it is one of my favorites. The Beatles as we all know have some amazing hits, that even to this day are very well known. Even though most people say that “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is an overrated album I can’t help but completely disagree. It was very different from the music at the time, and was overall a really well written album. “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” is one of my favorite songs, and apparently the original name was supposed to be “LSD” but the music industry frowned upon having a song named after an illicit drug. “She’s Leaving Home” is a very talented song lyrically. It’s a lied and I love how it’s basically a poem. I mean I know most songs are poems essentially, but the fact that this one tells a story through the song overall is really amazing. “Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” takes a really cool twist in minute 1:02 of the song. I love the different sound effects that they add into it, almost making it sound mysterious. “A Day In The Life” is also one of my all time favorites, it begins picking up the pace around minute 1:59 of the song. It has a nice melody to it and lyrically is so good. Like I said, this may not be the absolute best album that the Beatles ever made, but it definitely is one for the books. It is one of my all time favorites. It has such a vast variety of songs on there, and no song sounds the same. Absolutely amazing.

Do you ever just feel like completely exhausted. Not the physical type of exhaustion, but the mentally drained type. I felt physically, mentally and emotionally drained yesterday after I came home from school. I had made a 45 minute drive to UMSL and back both ways. I got stuck in traffic and on top of that I had to meet my class at a field trip at the Botanical Gardens. So after like 3 hours of driving, I just felt super tired and frustrated. To add onto that I had also taken two tests that day so my brain was just done working overall. Long story short, I got to the Botanical Gardens and I walked up to the front desk. I told the lady that I was there with a class, and she simply handed me a map and said, “Yeah they headed upstairs about 10-15 minutes ago. Here’s this map, maybe you’ll be able to find them somewhere up there.” So after what seemed like 5 hours (AKA 20 minutes) of constant walking I was finally able to find my class. We visited the Chinese and Japanese Gardens. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans (bad call on my part) and it was starting to get hot so I was very uncomfortable. When I got home I literally flopped onto my bed and decided to close my eyes for 30 MINUTES. Nope, I fell asleep for 13 hours! I want to say I went to “bed” around 6:00 PM and I woke up super confused at 1:00 AM, but don’t worry! I fell back asleep instantly! Then I woke up at 7:00 AM! Woo! Time to go to school! Moral of the story is don’t close your eyes for 30 minute naps, you may end up slipping into a 13 hour sleep coma.

This past Friday I went over to my boyfriends house and played Mortal Kombat with him. I hadn’t played it in a while, probably since I was like 6 or 7 years old. I wasn’t all that great (I think I lost my touch) but I was doing a pretty decent job. I want to say he beat me probably like 8 times in a row, and I had absolutely zero wins! (I swear I used to be good at some point) I remember I used to play my brother all the time, and he would always cry because I would beat him. Of course he says he doesn’t remember that. Anyway, he just got the Mortal Kombat 11 game and I am so excited to play it and see all the fatalities he’ll use on me because I know I’m going to be losing the whole time. He’s pretty excited about it so we’ll see. As far as other games, I am awful at Minecraft. Never ever playing it ever again, and my boyfriend said he’s never going to play it with me ever again either. I couldn’t figure out how to jump or honestly what the whole objective of Minecraft is which is probably the saddest part because I feel like it’s mostly a creative type of game. Like it’s pretty self explanatory but I was terrible at it so I’m just going to stray away from it.

It’s been a while. I haven’t exactly been on top of things lately and if I’m being honest senior year isn’t such a breeze as everyone makes it out to be. I have way too much going on with my school work and the college classes I’m currently taking that it’s hard to even breathe. Anyway, I’m pretty excited for Spring Break and this four day week. Well, it’s a two day week for me because I’ve been too busy dying. I had terrible stomach pain Friday night which then carried on to Saturday morning all the way until today. I missed both yesterday and today of school, and honestly I thought it was the stomach flu or something because I had constant pain and nausea. It has been feeling like someone is applying constant pressure onto my abdominal area, at one point I even thought it was really bad acid reflux or something. I had an appointment today and I have an ultrasound scheduled for Thursday to check for stones in my gallbladder. I really hope I do not have anything because I just do not have time at all right now. This is not the time to have something that might require surgery, but I really want the pain to go away. So I’m hoping for the best and that this is just some really bad acid reflux or just some type of stomach bug. I will be back at school tomorrow because I feel decent enough to go back and I also don’t really want to miss this whole week of school. Just have to power through this week! Spring Break is almost here!

Last Tuesday, I was assigned a research paper for Music Appreciation. Basically we’re responsible for trying to learn about our family history and research what potential music our ancestors would have listened to. This is a very difficult task because our teacher asked for us to go ahead and write a paper of who you would have been 10,000 years ago, and where you would have been. I have absolutely no clue. I know of people who have actually tracked their DNA in order to be able to see where it traces back to, but I don’t really think I have enough time to do so. I might write mine about my culture and the music that was popular at that time. It’s crazy to think about all of the different types of cultures that there are because of how many people came over to the United States in recent years. There’s a lot of diversity and I find that so interesting. Overall, I think I might give my grandma a phone call this weekend and try to figure out where we would trace back to. I can’t wait to find out new information because this had never really crossed my mind. We’re going to have to present this in class this Tuesday so I really have to get moving on this whole “research” and type it all out. There isn’t a lot of people I could ask except for my grandma but we’ll see how this goes. Apparently a couple years ago a student of his brought in a “Death Whistle” and he turned out to be from Aztec descent. I thought that was so cool. I hope to find out a lot about my culture in these next couple days.

My procrastination gets in the way of almost anything. I could have an assignment due in three days and I would still wait until the last minute to do it. Maybe even have a big essay due in three weeks and I would probably still wait to do it until the day before it’s due. It’s almost like my brain is split into two, and a part of me wants me to get my work done and on time but another part of me always finds an excuse as to maybe why I can’t do it or something that is more important at the moment. Whatever the reason is, my procrastination is definitely my biggest enemy. Heck, I was even watching a Procrastination Ted Talk video on YouTube as I am writing this blog about procrastination. This is definitely a conflict when it comes to large projects I have to do or for example, my speech that is next Wednesday. I feel like procrastination is always a common trend amongst majority of high school students but I’m really working hard to fix it this year. I do not want my procrastination to follow me around and follow me to college because well, long story short, it sucks. I have tried almost about everything. From writing in a planner to writing a to-do list, yet nothing seems to work. I seem to be doing a lot better this year because I’m not exactly doing homework assignments the morning that they are due, however, I am still doing them pretty late at night. I hope to see more progress and find a better strategy to end my terrible procrastination.