Spring At Last!

October, November, December, January, February, March, and even April all have had snow, but this past weekend was a glimpse of a little hope for spring. This past weekend was heaven for me. My parents were gone, and I was off of work! So I had the weekend all to myself, and I took advantage of it! I tanned on the deck, went out to eat, and jammed to music as loud as I could. I also had two bonfires with my friends! I had so much fun, and wish my parents left town more often. They should be willing to leave because I'm a good kid! I even cleaned the basement before they got home! I think I was willing to do that just because the weather put me in such a great mood! I wish it could be spring all year!

Growing Older.

In two short weeks my big sister will be graduating college. I literally can't believe she is done already. I can remember going on visits with her and people always asking me, "what are you planning on majoring in?" and then I would have to politely tell them that I was a 7th grader and that the cute (small) girl next to me was the senior. I can remember moving her in to her dorm the first year, and having to leave her all alone with a stranger. This was hard, but what was even harder was thinking about being home alone for the rest of my life. I learned to appreciate my sister more and more the longer she has been gone. Now she is all grown up and is going to find a real job and live in a real home and start her real life. I can't imagine how she is feeling right now! In August she will be leaving on a missions trip to either Malaysia or Jerusalem with the program Young Adults in Global Missions (YAGM) for a year. I am so excited for the new experiences she will have from this! Plus my parents are even talking about going to visit her over Christmas which is an awesome excuse to take a spectacular family vacation! Unfortunately, I am actually quite sad to see her leave! I'm really bummed she won't be around for my senior year! I really wish she could be around to watch my play my last season of volleyball and even to see my graduation! It's crazy to think about how far my sister and mine's relationship has grown throughout the years. I am so grateful for having her in my life and extremely excited to see where life takes her! I can't wait to see what life has in store for the rest of our lives and the cool things we will get to do together!

Stress.

What stresses a person out? School, work, home-life, personal appearance, money, or even just something as simple as a dirty room? Well for me it's most of the above. Here's another question… How do most people handle stress? Some people eat, cry, get angry, hide themselves, become depressed, turn to alcohol or drugs, or even resort to self harm. For me I just get completely and totally worn out. I push myself to my limits when I'm stressed, thinking I can take on more and more, even when I can't. I don't get more than 6 hours of sleep every night, I start to eat very unhealthy, and I even sometimes see my grades start to slip. Right now I am stressed. As you can tell I am writing this blog one hour before it's due, which is probably not the best scholarly habit to be practicing, but I have had a lot on my plate lately. I feel as if I always have these reoccurring three week periods where I am busy from school to 11 every night. I am in one of those periods right now. With my new job, my sisters upcoming graduation, starting to think about college, pushing hard to keep my grades up, and all of the regular end of the year craziness, I haven't had time to think about anything. So I'm very sorry to anyone that reads this post, because even I know its lacking in my normal creative or opinion filled blog posts. But when I was thinking about what I should write my blog on, the first thing that came to my mind was to be honest. So here I am telling you, my fellow classmates, that I am stressed. I am just worn out right now and I can't wait to finally be able to crash. I am ready for summer anytime now, and I think it's only about 29 school days away! That is awesome. So as I lay on my bed contemplating whether or not I should submit this blog I can't stop thinking about summer, friends, family, and a time of peace that is just around the corner. I'm sure you all can agree that the end of school is near, and you are losing most of your motivation. I sure hope that I am not the only one that feels this way! But I guess the main point of this post is to warn you all not to become susceptible to the crazy things stress can do to you! I am not doctor nor do I even know much about anything, but I think stress can ruin a person everyday and can definitely hold a person back from doing the things they want to! So don't forget to take a break, pamper yourself, and just take a breather from all the stresses in your life. :)