Assignment 8 Cate Clay

Fears: snakes, drowning, being buried alive, roller coasters
Annoyances: cockiness, false senses of entitlement, close-mindedness
Accomplishments: success in school, good friends, no longer caught up in competitiveness of school
Confusions: religion, existence
Sorrows: lacking self-confidence
Dreams: career that I enjoy and involves helping people, travel
Idiosyncrasies: I love checking things off of a to-do list
Risks: sky-diving, living in another country for a year
Beloved Possessions: hamster (then), healthy relationships with friends and family (now), my dog (now)
Problems: get bored too easily

Adjusting to high school was difficult, but not because of the larger work-load or the more difficult classes. Because of the competitiveness. All of the sudden, people realized that what they were doing would determine their future- mainly the college they could get accepted in. Initially, I got wrapped up in all of the stress. I constantly worried that I wasn't doing enough community service or making high enough grades or involved in enough extracurriculars. Somewhere along the way I realized that this was no way to spend my high school years. Later on, I would regret wasting this time in my life. I of course still work hard and try to be involved in school, but this no longer brings me stress. Instead, I only do extracurriculars that I will truly enjoy and I don't put too much pressure on myself about school. I've found that this allows me to be much happier while still being successful in what I do. In the long run, I will be able to live happily no matter my performance in high school or the college I attend. And that matters much more than my GPA or ACT score.