Song of the Week: Mother and Father

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice... Kind of...

It is October 23rd, and the pumpkin-spice lattes are stinking up Starbucks. It's that time of year when you can walk to school in a sweater being freezing and have to walk home feeling 212º. The candy is being sold in bulk at all the grocery stores, and the spectrum of colors has already come and gone in a fiery flash of orange and yellow. Now, with crunchy-brown leaves on the ground, and a disgusting layer of mud coating the surface of the ground virtually everywhere, we are left with the grand season of Fall.

Photo Courtesy of dmu.edu

Fall is not my favorite part of the year. First of all, I simply can NOT stand the weather. When the forecast is up to par, the sky is either deep breathing into the crackling dead trees, raining pointless drops of precipitation (where is the snow already?), or the air is cold enough to nip at the tip of your nose. Today, for example, was frosty in the morning, but by the time I had to walk to the high school for fourth period I was uncomfortably warm in my long-sleeve and boots. It's that obnoxious unpredictability of what the weather that day might be like as well. Raining in the morning and sunny and windy in the afternoon, or cold in the morning and hot in the evening. Getting ready in the morning is more difficult than it should be for me.

Photo Courtesy socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com

The beginning of Fall means the ending of the first quarter in school. Which always brings the loveliness of test finals, last minute retakes, and extra credit, and of course the praying that your grade point average might rise those last thirty-four-hundreths of a point. (I have this really frustrating A- in Math).

As I am sure you are aware, *Halloween is on the 31st. 

*Halloween: An American function in which people put on plastic costumes, ranging from the Grim Reaper to Snow white, and knock on the doors of unknown neighbors asking for chocolate in shiny wrappers. A "fun" time for people of all ages.

Halloween is not particular number one on my list of favorite holidays (that'd probably have to be the Fourth of July). I'm not so sure why, maybe it's the fact that my night never really goes as planned, not necessarily in a bad way though. Maybe it's because it's always a struggle trying to pick out what to wear, and how not to get judged doing so. Maybe I don't like gory costumes, and the little princesses running around make me miss those days. Maybe it's because I simply hate the idea of carved pumpkins and cheesy orange and purple decorations across people's lawns. Who knows...

Each day through Fall is another day closer to Winter, I season more liked by myself. Sooner or later we'll get there. In the meantime, don't put cheesy orange and purple decorations all over your lawn.

Super Sleep Deprived

Is nine hours really how much you're supposed to get? I'm expected to get nine hours of sleep a night... that's seemingly impossible. Yes, I am not the best at managing my time per say, but for me to get a full nine hours of sleep that means I have to be out cold at 10:00pm if I am waking up for school the next day at 6:00am. Lets see here; if school gets out at 2:25pm, I go straight to swim practice after. Swimming is from 3:00-5:00pm. After swimming I can also have lacrosse some days, if lacrosse practice is from 5:30pm-7:30pm, that usually doesn't leave me getting home until 7:45pm or sometimes even closer to 8:00pm. By the time I come home and get something to eat for dinner, that's already pushing 9:00pm. That leaves me to shower (the chlorine often leaving knots the size of dreads in my hair doesn't necessarily help with time efficiency), and get ready for bed. At this point it's usually around 9:30pm or 9:45ish. Keeping in mind I still have yet to get to my schoolwork for the day, I generally get to bed around 11:30pm or 11:00 on a good night. Thats also if I don't get sucked into the vortex typically called Tumblr for an extra "ten minutes" (which is an hour when we're talking Tumblr). *Side-note: My phone is probably the sole excuse of my unhealthy time-management skills. Leaving me with six to seven hours of Zs.

Photo Courtesy imgarcade.com

Sometimes I feel better going off of three hours of sleep then I would six. At school lack of sleep can definitely start to catch up to me. Between the five to six hours of sleep I've been getting over the course of the past three weeks, the stress overload, and my science teacher's melodic voice-- how could you not have a little understanding for the exhausted and half-asleep head bob? That's bad, I know... I should at least be able to stay awake during class.

Photo Courtesy imsa.edu

I've gotten to a point where I'm so used to going to bed at later hours that I can't even fall asleep when I do scrape up the time to. Sometimes I try falling asleep to music, that can either do the trick right away or totally backfire and resulting in me wide eyed for an extra hour or two. Counting down from one-hundred is a myth, and counting sheep is a joke. I know they have sleeping pills and other medical options out there, but I'm that type of person that will NOT pop the pill unless I am in dire need. Sleeping drugs kind of scare me.

Thus I am still waking up every morning with bags bigger than a Louis V under my eyes. Long story short, I think I've accepted the fact that I will not be getting my full nine hours of sleep.

Song of the Week: From Eden

Dress to stress...

Alright between school, sports, friends, parents, and sometimes just the elephant-on-your-chest of life itself adds up. A.k.a. stress.

Definition and Photo Courtesy of Merriam-Webster Dictionary

If feels like a little tornado gusting inside of your stomach and tumbling its way into your chest, sucking the breath from your lips and leaving you wide eyed. It smells of body oder and tastes like the sourness of nothing between your teeth. As the sweat collects on your hairline, you suddenly become aware of the massive weight your clothes now seem to put on your body, your cotton t-shirt dragging you down to hell. All you can do is sit there and simply tell them you're fine. Even though the monster inside you is punching holes in your wholeness.

It happens, the chemical build up of toxins due to the fight or flight reaction process our bodies experience for survival purposes. Stress and anxiety are purely a human extinct, but purely the thing eating kids alive these days. Stress can lead to depression. Depression is the third leading cause of death in people ages fifteen to forty-four, and it is estimated that ten to fifteen percent of teens are depressed. We all experience it, the stress and anxiety, yet some of us still can't cope with it. That being the scary part.

My cause of stress is mostly caused by school work and deadlines. I'm a natural procrastinator, and don't act like you haven't ever been there too; pulling the two-hours-of-sleep nights to get that project in on time. Well, maybe not to those extremes. Homework isn't always the most pleasant when you struggle managing your time. Then why don't we through a little after-school practice or game in there, which is always something to look forward to, until the reality of that blog post you had to do tonight is looking you in the eye. Along with the fact that you had gotten in a fight with your mom that morning sprinkled on top of the situation. Now she is ignoring you the whole ride home. You still haven't caught up on your reading you needed to do yesterday, as  well as feeding the dogs and doing your laundry before your mom gets even more mad at you then-- KABAM! It started as a little salamander slithering through your tummy but now it has escalated to a basketball stuck up your sarcophagus and before you know it the stress seems to have engulfed you whole. Yes, I know the feeling.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Once more.

Maybe twice.

That can usually do the trick. For me, at least.

If you are interested on learning more about the direct side effects and health facts behind stress these are a few links that you make take use of:

Mayo Clinic

Help Guide

American Psychological Association

University of Maryland

Oh the Places We'll Go

Wow my first blog post! This is exciting... I'd like to consider this the first baby step to an exceedingly winding, changing, and rousing path; don't feel like you can't turn back a few miles in if you don't think you'd like to stick around for the hike [as much as I'd miss the hiking buddy]. Hopefully this will give you a trail map of what my blog will somewhat look like.

This blog is birthing from an assignment in 9th Grade English, to be up-front and honest with you. I plan to have a lot of fun with this though. Life as a high-schooler is complicated, hormonal, and frustrating as I've come to figure out my first two months as a freshman. Life is a journey and everyone has their own, this blog will definitely give you a glimpse at mine. If you find it on here it's because I either: feel the need to write about the matter, find it interesting, fun, and exciting [chances are you will too], or relate to it.

Besides those guidelines, which are pretty broad, I don't have any other specific plans for this blog, so it should be super fun to see where it takes us. If you don't like my blog I'm alright with that, this blog is for me just as much as it is for you. You can take it or leave it ;)

I am pretty much as close to an inexperienced blogger as it gets. I've never had a blog before. I have read and heard of several blogs in the past, but have never been intrigued to an extent as to start one of my own. This assignment encourages me [more bluntly forces, shoutout to Mr. Parker;)] to try something a little bit out of my comfort zone, so work with me a little bit through this process and we'll embark on this unknown-territory together, reader and first-time blogger.

Photo Courtesy: beversbendblog