When I was in High school I took 7 AP tests: English-literature, English-Composition, Calculus, Physics, American History, European History, and World History. A lot of people seem really impressed when they hear this, but they really shouldn't be. I've never been a very good student. I'm naturally lazy, and I rarely do work that I don't absolutely have to. In these classes I usually got B's and C's, but grades don't really matter to the colleges, all they care about is the test that we take at the end of the year. Calculus was easy because I had an excellent teacher; I understood the concepts well, so the test was really easy. Physics was probably the hardest. That's probably the one that I worked the most for, and I barely passed. English is my weakness. I dislike analyzing books and poetry, and though I write fairly decent essays, I don't like the things that I had to write on. Half of the English tests are multiple choice, the other half are essays. I'm fairly good at deductive reasoning, so usually by the process of elimination I do decently on multiple choice. The essays were always a struggle, but by talking a lot and making it sound like I know what I'm talking about, I managed to scrape by on both of those tests. The last three are history. History is kind of my thing. So I did well on those tests more to prove a point. I didn't mind studying because I enjoyed the subject.
I like to call this long-term laziness. Even though I ended up doing more work at that time, in the long run it ended up being a lot less work, and a lot less costly. I began college this fall with 36 credits before I had even begun. The majority of my GE's are done. I don't have to take any English, or math, or science at all because of these tests. Because I'm majoring in history I don't get to get out of history all together, but I don't have to take any of the basic level history classes. Great! Yeah, that was my first thought too. The only problem with that is... what do I take now. All of the other people my age are just taking their basic math, history, science, English, etc. I don't have to take any of those, so I've been plunged right into the thick of things. I'm taking several sophomore and junior level classes. It's hard! My study habits from high school were not wise, I really didn't have to do all that much work during the school year, because I could just study hard at the end of the year and salvage my test, as well as my grade. I never worried about getting strait A's because nothing mattered except that test. Now, there is no big test at the end of the year. There is nothing that I can cram for and make it all come out okay. All there is, is hard work. I'm not used to this.
Most of the other people in my classes are in their early 20s or older, some are nearing graduation. I'm 18. I won't even turn 19 for quite some time. I feel like a little kid compared to some of these people. The other day, in one of my classes, we were discussing our memories of September 11, 2001. Most people were in mid-high school, some were serving missions, and some were even in college already. I had just begun Middle school. It was just a few days after I had begun 7th grade. I graduated from elementary school just a couple of months before. In another of my classes, I don't remember what the topic was, but we were talking about where we were in 1992. Most were in elementary school, some older. I was barely three years old. I wasn't even in pre-school yet.
So, this last month or so has been very stressful for me. But this is not the fault of anyone but myself. I should be able to handle things like this. Other people my age would be able to, it has just been my own laziness that has put me into this position. If I can make it through this semester I think that I will have learned a really good lesson: how to do real hard work. Sure, I can do hard labor, and chores around he house and stuff like that, but I've never really had to actually work hard in school, deadlines and such are not something that I enjoy.
And now that I have taken a nice long break... I've got homework to do