Assignment 24 Danielle Dutton

The other day our substitute in APUSH said this: “I feel like part of being a nerd is living a gently nervous life.” And if that doesn’t describe my junior year I don’t know what does. Some days I’ve been stressed out of my mind. Some days I’ve felt absolutely fine. But together it all averages out to a constant state of gentle nervousness, and all I can say about that is it’s been EXHAUSTING. Stress takes a lot out of a person, especially when it essentially never goes away. So what do I need? A break - a little while of having no obligations. But being the overachiever I am, what am I not giving myself this summer? A break! 

I start off my summer with an early morning SAT followed directly by 5 hours of marching band. A couple days later I’m off to Drum Major Academy. When I get back from that I’ve got just a couple days before leaving for five weeks of GSP, and then the day after I get back from that I start three weeks of marching band camp, which takes me all the way up to the start of senior year. That being said, my hope for senior year is that it’s a lot easier than junior year, because I don’t know if I can go on at this pace without a real break for another year - death from exhaustion does exist after all. But even if senior year doesn’t provide any kind of break from the stress, I’m sure I’ll get through it just like I did this year. After all, it’s a nerd’s job to live a gently nervous life.