The Beginning

Here we are, starting on yet another year and this time, everything matters. And guess what, I'm scared. I'm scared about looming grades, the formidable GPA, frightening APs, and the monster of them all: the SAT. Almost everyone in college or beyond tells me that this year makes you or breaks you. Naturally, as we all try to be optimists, we hope our lives rest on the previous.

What happened to those frivolous days when I need not worry about homework or tests or even class? What happened to the days when an hour or so was solely dedicated to naptime? My mind was constantly on a fun random puzzle, an excitingly useless game with friends, or simply asleep. I miss those days.

Sometimes, I wish I could turn back the clock, invert the hourglass a couple times like Hermione in Harry Potter, but if I did, I wouldn't change anything. Perhaps, prolonging that innocence and that youth could be the recipe of dreams, but we all have to grow up one day. And as we grow up, more is expected from us and hopefully, with each year comes great wisdom. And before long, we'll go to college, grow up to be unique individuals, succeed. I wonder where we'll all be in 5, 10 years.

Late at night, as I studied for an AP US History test the next day, consumed by every conceivable specter of stress, I promised myself that once in a while, even at the worst possible moment, I deserve a break.

I think it's time for all of us to take one long, deep breath cause junior year has just begun.