Stressed shouldn’t be a permanent mood. Today is May 17.
Some days are just weird. Despite waking up close to 11:30 a.m., my parents still decided to do a large breakfast meal after noon. My dad cooked French toast and sausage and made smoothies for all of us. My mom had to write nice notes for her yearbook class, so she didn’t eat much and seemed anxious the whole time we were together. Almost as soon as the meal was done she raced to change and leave home so she could meet up with her students on time. Her plans went a little awry when she took the wrong car (the one that didn’t have yearbooks in it), however, so she had to come back home to pick up yearbooks, which in turn made her even later than she was already going to be.
After I finished cleaning up the table from breakfast, I headed into the living room to do some studying and work for my Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology class. I have my last two AP tests this week, AP Biology on Monday and AP Psychology on Tuesday, so I’m using all the time I have left preparing. I am not feeling optimistic about my AP Bio test, but I think with some last-minute work I can have a fighting chance of scoring well on my AP Psych test.
To prepare for AP Psych, I created a collaborative study guide with three other students in my class. I know I’ll have to transfer the information to a separate Google Doc on the day of the test so I’m not mistakenly flagged for cheating, but I found putting all of my notes and vocabulary into shared documents helpful. With this system, I can easily search key words and ideas on the day of the test without switching among folders and notes pages. I was also able to clarify a few aspects of older units and places where I didn’t take the best notes with my friends.
About half way through my work, I decided to take a break. I should have probably stayed focused and powered through my boredom, but instead I opted to watch a movie and let my mind take a break. I decided on Soul Surfer, which is an inspirational film based on the true story of a young girl who lost her arm in a shark attack but went on to become a professional surfer. I have a soft spot for moving movies that center around an athlete who suffered a tragedy. I’m not sure why I enjoy those pictures so much, but they always seem to motivate me to work hard and believe in myself and my dreams.
Once the film finished, I returned to work. This time I read modules 55-59 of my AP Psych textbook, which deal with personality. Even though we didn’t officially cover this in class, a friend of mine told me the topic is fair game for the exam, so I wanted to be prepared. I’m interested in psychological history as much as the next person, but after reading 20 straight pages about Sigmund Freud’s strange theories I’m a little grossed out and glad our class didn’t have to discuss his ideas on psychosexual development out loud.
I had to pause my reading with about 10 pages still to go because my mom said it was time to eat dinner. After finishing our pasta meal, I returned to work. I have an 11:45 p.m. application deadline for a potential course I’m interested in taking in college called the Chancellor’s Leadership Class. As per usual, I procrastinated until the absolute last minute with completing the application and ended up backing myself into a corner with four short-response questions dealing with what makes me a good candidate and what I hope to learn from the course. They’re a bit difficult to answer given the fact that I’m not even sure I want to take the class next year, but I’m hoping if I knuckle down and give the responses the full force of my energy I’ll be able to come up with something suitable by the deadline. If I have any time to spare after I submit, I’m planning on studying for my AP Bio test, but if not, I guess I’m just going to get a good night’s sleep and hope that by some miracle I can understand tomorrow’s test questions.
“Meet me in the middle of your story when the soul is worn but wise.” ― Angie Weiland-Crosby
How did you spend your 61st day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.
