Greetings and salutations! You may address me as Elina Turk, an eighth-grader at J. Frank Dobie Junior High School. Overall, my school year so far has been a joyous one. I’ve stayed on top of my work, I’ve been getting ready early, and I enjoy most of my classes. However, as students often do, I have some goals and issues I’d like to work out as I settle myself back into my daily routine throughout the school year.

If you, the reader, are anything like me, then I pity you, as it is likely you are over-sensitive and always worrying. That’s gotta stop, buddy. Seriously though, for the profession I wish to be in, the constant anxiety definitely has to go. It’s not bad enough to the point of needing therapy, though. I simply convince myself that if they had the chance, everyone would abandon me and leave me to rot because they all secretly hate me and are pretending to like me to be nice. Foolish, I know. Only I don’t know. I merely hope. By the end of the year I’m praying that my brain will realize that there are people willingly talking to me. Life would seem so much easier.

Moving away from the self-doubt, I have a problem that is relatively common among students. As I have already mentioned, I worry. Often. One of the things I panic about most frequently are my grades, and whether or not I will pass. Being in all Honors classes, I am exposed to harder material. Even though I understand most of what I am taught, the simple knowledge that I am studying a step above some classmates is enough to send me into a panic. I should have no reason to be worried. Only, I do, because I forget to do my work! I plan to keep better track of my assignments this year so I have no reason to fret.

So far, thankfully, I’ve been doing pretty well with these reasonably simple goals. I’m going to be in the school play, which will hopefully give my confidence a boost. I’ve also been turning in my work every single day without it being late. Maybe, by the end of the year, these undemanding goals will finally be accomplished.