I don't know why I tend to make a bigger deal out of things than they really are. I tend to stress about things way more than is actually warranted. You'd think one of these days I would learn.

Remember all those big papers and such I have due this week? I worked on them over the weekend. I got one completely done and turned in (the next one for that class is due in a week, let's see how stressed out I can get over it!) and it was totally not a big deal. The paper for my English class was the one I was totally stressing over. I couldn't find a good article to write a rhetorical analysis of and if I couldn't find an article how was I supposed to write a paper about it. And once I found an article, would I be able to write a good rhetorical analysis of it?

I went to the library last Thursday and found a bunch of Newsweek and Time magazines that hopefully would have SOMETHING I could write a rhetorical analysis of. And not just any article. I wanted to find something that had meaning and I actually cared about so I could make the analysis good. Saturday morning I woke up and looked and looked and looked and finally found an article I liked and actually wanted to write on. I started making notes and analyzing the rhetorical strategy so I could write a coherent paper. I ended up typing up the whole thing Monday night (the draft was due yesterday) and hoping it was anywhere near coherent. But I really didn't care THAT much because it was just a draft. I still had time before Thursday when the final paper was due.

Yesterday morning we had peer reviews. My teacher decided to wait until AT LEAST next Tuesday to turn in the papers so we would have plenty of time for review. Why had I stressed so much? Because if I hadn't it would have still been due Thursday with my luck. I ended up in a group of three other girls and we each took turns going through our papers. There were a lot of comments for each of the other girls in the group to help them improve upon what they had already written. When they read my paper they all just sat there. Stunned. After a few seconds they all stared at me and told me how amazing my paper was, that there really wasn't much of anything they would change or add. Again, what was I so worried about?

I have an anthropology midterm on Thursday. Something else I've been stressing over. I have read all the chapters, taken detailed notes in class, and my memory is fairly good but when I've taken the online quizzes for each chapter my average is about 75%. And the teacher has been pretty good about telling us how hard this test is going to be and that we'll all hate her when it's done. We had a review last night and really, I knew nearly all the answers. The questions were pretty easy and if that's what the midterm is going to be like I have nothing to worry about. But what if it's not? I guess there's really nothing to stress about. All I can do is study as much as I can and take the test and hope it's good enough.

Life is kind of like that. All we can do is the best that we can. There's no sense stressing about things. Do what you can and things always tend to work out. Somehow.

Oh! And I'm getting a raise! Not a big one but a little bit is better than nothing, eh? Do what you can and everything gets taken care of.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to study for an anthropology midterm...