Le@ve time for yourself. Spe@k.

We all have those times of our life that are absolutely packed to the brim, never leaving us a spare moment.  For me, Thursday was the kickoff of what would be the most overplanned, unidle few weeks of my life.  I walked around with transitional words and phrases clouding my mind, vocab flashcards in one hand, a phone loaded with text messages awaiting answers in the other, my iPod shoved in my ears as visions of choreography danced in my head.  Yet, today it took its toll.  With six hours of sleep and a winding road of activity laid out before me, I broke.  My stomach churned and twisted painfully, I felt lightheaded, and chills swept over my body in regular cycles.  All day I kept telling myself "Pull through, it's just a day.  Go home, work, and then relax."  But my body seemed to groan in anguish at the very idea of sitting through an entire day of class.  Finally, I spoke up and told my health teacher I needed to go home.  No fever, no vomiting, just pure stress.  All the way home I frantically offered up excuses to my mom about why I had to leave early and the benefits and consequences of my choice and so on.  Contrarily, I realized, I was convincing myself.  The lesson that can be learned from this is it is absolutely vital to rejuvanate your body, or you will never be able to work up to your full potential.  In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nobody can bring you peace but yourself."  So instead of getting a head start on that long term project every time, settle down and watch a show. And most importantly speak what you feel, whether it's to others or to yourself. You'd be surprised what you will find.

We must balance the scale between stress and relaxation to live a healthy lifestyle.

Ch@nge c@n h@ppen @t @ny time.

Before a debate, a challenge, an opportunity to speak and thereafter be beaten down by an opponent, your heart is already a restless bird, fluttering wildly in your rib cage.  But when one of your teammates doesn't show up on the day of the discourse?  Now that's stressful.  This week, my history class had to face each other off in a political related debate.  Meanwhile, this is Communications High School, we can listen and rebuttal opinions, it comes as naturally as walking to us.  But this wasn't just any debate.  Oh no. This was for points.  And when points are involved, the competitive spirit is unleashed.  All weekend, my team divided our strong points, came up with a sequence, and mapped our way to victory step by step.  And then sickness hit.  Our whole plan was torn like a door off of its hinges.  Somehow, we still emerged victorious over the other team, who also suffered from a missing member.  Then again, I know how.  Sometimes planning is not the key to success; but rather adaptation to sudden changes in the environment, sudden changes in standards, sudden changes in expectations.  In the words of Stephen Hawking, "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."  For me, one who always thought I could acquire all my knowledge from books and thorough study of them, this came as a real shock.

Change can be, and often is, unexpected.