When did life get to be so complicated?

Worry is such a funny thing. I think the only time we never really worry is from the ages of 0-10. Not even 10 maybe. By then, there are so many things to worry about. Worrying can be so stressful and exhausting. I mean just imagine what the parents must feel like everytime their son or daughter is out on their own or thy’re out driving alone for the first time. I’m 16 and I’ve already got so much to worry about. Mulitply that by about 1000 and you have how they feel everyday of their life since they had kids.

Its like in the movie I was watching “What a Girl Wants”. Yes, the one with Amanda Bynes. Her character left to go to England and find her father. Well she found her father and also a very cute British biker boy. She leaves and goes off with him and for the first time he experiences the worry that all father’s go through when their eldest daughter is out with a boy all day. I know my father goes through that. I mean he still tries to treat me like the little 5 year old who never left his side.

Currently my biggest worry is for my friends. I mean a lot of them are going through tough times in their life. One person specifically. I don’t know how to help them. I can’t think of anything. I honestly cannot. Usually I can come up with ideas but with this one I’m fresh out of ideas. Its really sad to because I want to help them so bad. They deserved to be helped. I don’t think they can handle this one on their own. Of course I am probably underestimating them but I’m just worried sick about them. For all my friends I am worried.

Well enough about worrying for now, I don’t know just felt like writing about it. The dreaded SAT’s have finally caught up with me and I am to take mine on October 14. Is it really that time already? Am I at the point in life where I have to be thinking about colleges and this and that? Yes I am. Its gone by so quickly. I look back and I can see the years I spent as a child fly by me. Its really sad actually I don’t think I enjoyed my childhood as much as I should have. You’re only a child once after all. I stressed myself out way to much. I let so many things get to me. I was thinking about things most kids don’t think about. Its seems like as the years go on the less and less the children get to act like kids. I mean my sister, who’s in first grade, comes home and could probably have almost as much homework as I sometimes get. Its not like a lot for one subject but its a lot in a collective form. The demands on the kids these days are so much greater than that of when we were kids. As the demands grow on the little ones, they also grow on us to. Parents keep saying we’re only teenagers, how much stress can we have to deal with?

Let me share something with you parents out there, its a lot more than you think. High School isn’t what it was when you were in it. Sure you guys all had jobs, sports, volunteering. You didn’t have AP, Honors classes. Colleges weren’t looking for the all around student. The average GPA wasn’t 4.23 something or another. Now a days that’s what it is. Everyone is involved in anything and everything. Colleges aren’t as focused on grades but its more of how well did you balance your time in addition to keeping your grades up. Did you do any extra-curricular? The requirements for college have gone up so much. Its so much harder to get into these good schools. Plus, going to college in the 70s and 80s was when a Bachelor’s degree was pretty much what everyone had. Now Bachelor’s is like a minimum and could probably get you the smaller wage job. What is happening to the world?

Wow, that was a lot to get out. I honestly have no idea where this came from. Maybe its because I am getting really stressed and frustrated with a lot of the stuff I have for school. I have so many things going on I could probably swim in it. In all seriousness. My calendar until December is like full. I need time to kick back relax and rest my brain. Even over long weekends I can’t do that because I have some big project due. When did life get to be so complicated?

Well, for once I get to go to bed before midnight. First time in a few weeks now. I am going to cherish it with every fiber of my being. So long, auf wiedersein, bon soir, good night, farewell…………

A DOG’S PLEA……

Treat me kindly, my beloved friend, for no heart in all the world is more grateful for kindness than the loving heart of me. Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I might lick your hand between blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the things you would have me learn. Speak to me often, for your voice is the world’s sweetest music, as you must know by the fierce wagging of my tail when the sound of your footstep falls upon my waiting ear. Please keep me inside when it is cold and wet, for I am a domesticated animal, no longer accustomed to bitter elements. I ask no greater glory than the privilege of sitting at your feet beside the hearth. Keep my pan filled with fresh water, for I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst. Feed me clean food that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life, should your life be in danger. And my friend, when I am very old and I no longer enjoy good health, hearing and sight, do not make heroic efforts to keep me going. I am not having any fun. Please see to it that my life is taken gently. I shall leave this earth knowing with the last breath I drew that my fate was always safest in your loving hands…. Take care

John is the kind of guy you love to hate.

Author Unknown - John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” He replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or … you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.” Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. “Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested. “Yes, it is,” he said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life” I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins Wanna see my scars?” I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,” he replied. “Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.” “Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. He continued, “..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’. I knew I needed to take action.” “What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said John. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity’.” Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.” He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude… I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. Take care

Hercules the Liger

Hi Everybody - I just thought you might find this interesting… He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic creation from Hollywood. But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood – as he proves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion, part tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one,standing 10ft tall on his back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species. He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents. “Ligers are not something we planned on having,” said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. “We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger.” 50mph runner… Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia. But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II. Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger. Take care all

Motivations

You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself. Diana Ross If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive, Dale Carnegie Champions know that success is inevitable, that there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. They know that the best way to forecast the future is to create it. Michael J. Gelb Never let your failures go to your heart or your successes go to your head. Anon The biggest mistake is to believe that you’re working for someone else. Nashua Cavalier You are your own yardstick. You may never be the champion, but if you measure up to your best you are the best. Anon The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for out wits to grow sharper. Eden Philpotts Accomplishment is easiest when we work the hardest, and hardest when we work the easiest. Anon Whenever we do what we can we can immediately do more. James Freeman Clarke There are very few things we can achieve without someone’s help. Anon Success is never ending, failure is never final. Dr. Robert Schuller One of the secrets of success is to refuse to let temporary setbacks defeat us. Mary Kay A wise man, when asked how he had learnt so much about everything, replied, “By never being afraid to ask questions about anything of which I was ignorant.” John Abbott Like a ten-speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use. Charles Schultz He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else. Benjamin Franklin Take care