Stress & College Students

People continue to ask me during my college career if I'm stressed. Well yeah! And there are several causes that make me feel so stressed. But no one ever asks what is causing the stress or how I can help manage the stress.

Does this mean that being stressed is the new "norm"? People are always talking about how they are stressed or asking how others are. Try googling stress and see what you get. You'll probably get a lot of results containing essays, opinions, and studies of what stress can do to the body like I did. Maybe even some sites that try to be helpful and tell you how to stop procrastinating and stressing out. But do we actually realize how much it can affect us? Did you know it can affect you immune system?! Not to mention your cardiovascular, neuroendocrine (which deals with hormones and metabolism) and the central nervous system! All because of a little stress?

The thing that ends up causing me the most stress is often times feeling overwhelmed with the amount of homework that is given. Some of the times, it is because I choose to wait a bit before starting the assignments but sometimes it is because there is a lot being assigned all at once. Take this semester for example: I had an art class where I was unable to get all the book assignments as well as the in-class assignments done during the given class period. What only furthered my frustration with the project was I could not get Photoshop (which was required for the projects) on my computer for I had already used my free trial up. The other problem I ran into was the times the Mac labs were open before and after classes. The main problem I had with the class was that at the beginning we had too much time to do the homework, but towards the end of the class we had too much homework. I ended up having to skip a class or two the Friday before finals week to get all the art projects done and turned in.

Another thing that tends to go hand in hand with procrastination is allowing distractions to...well distract us. I know I've done this and so have many others: TV shows, movies, or even Netflix. How easy is it to just pick up watching tv shows when they are so available on the internet! Here's a link to what a senior from Auburn, Tory Waltrip, has to say on the matter:


Find more videos like this on Auburn Family
She's gone through all the years of college, I think she knows what's up!

According to the report Stress in America, reported by the American Psychological Association, stress can be harmful to students' health. Especially when they are constantly stressed out - or chronically stressed. The report says that "an extreme amount of stress can take a severe emotional toll" on people. Well it's no wonder college students end up moody and severely emotional, especially the closer they get to finals week. The research they have done says that if chronic stress is left untreated it can result in serious health conditions, such as: anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and much more. Over-eating is even mentioned as a way that people "deal" with stress. Come on guys, I know I'm not the only one who feels like munching when stressed. The report also says that despite all the connections to major illnesses, 33% of Americans have never discussed ways to manage stress with their doctor or other healthcare provider.

Holy smokes! We, as college students, need to find ways to manage our stress before we end up with a major illness or disease. It's time to start learning how to properly deal with stress. The Open University has some great tips for minimizing distractions and procrastination. Some of the suggestions they give are setting short term deadlines such as reading for 40 minutes and taking a coffee break and turning your phone on silent or asking your friends not to disturb you. I struggle with texting constantly especially when I'm doing homework. It seems to take me twice as long to finish my homework if I'm texting my brother, friends, or boyfriend. I just need to let them know I need to work on my homework for a bit and I will text them once I'm done. But that's easier said than done because of how technologically dependent I am!

The report offers some great ways to help manage stress. They say that even taking a small step to reduce stress and to improve emotional stress can have a positive effect on your life. For me, this would be not procrastinating and wait until the last minute/day to do homework or study. Physical activity is mentioned as a great way to manage stress. By doing something active, such as taking a walk or biking, will produce endorphins. Endorphins are a neurotransmitter to the brain that tell it to feel good and can help with treating mild forms of anxiety or depression. I've taken to hanging a punching bag in the garage and focusing my stress and anger on the bag. I end up feeling much better afterwards!

Eating healthy and balancing your day with a healthy balance of sleep and good food can help in enhancing your life. As a warning, the report does state that if high levels of stress continue over a long period of time, or problems from stress interfere with your day to day living, it is very important to see a licensed mental health professional/psychologist. They can help you overcome the barriers that keep you from living a healthy life and they can help you learn stress-management techniques.

As an Education major, I will certainly keep my experiences in mind especially when it comes to assigning homework with enough time to get everything done. As an English major, I understand that not everyone loves English as much as I do and that it can be stressful for others. I will work to make ways to teach English in a fun way and to keep it interesting so that perhaps it will help students to not procrastinate on account of the homework being boring or dry. I know that not everyone will enjoy it but I will do my best and that's all I can do. Perhaps I will even have a small talk about managing stress to my classes, especially my senior classes because of the dreaded "senioritis".

Of course, as a teacher I will have several points of stress that I will have to learn to manage and adapt to. But by reading the APA's article, Stress in America, I feel that I am better equipped to deal with stress. I have a feeling I will be making some lifestyle choices soon and hopefully you all do the same and fight back with stress!

Open Mic Night

Even though I was very nervous to have to be the host of Open Mic, I thought it went okay. My favorite part was getting to read my poem which I didn't expect people to react to but they thought it was funny. I'm glad they did because I was scared that no one would react to it. Overall it was a very successul night with the singing, stories, and poetry readings.

But after seeing something that was posted on a DSU confessions page, I ended up calling my mother to tell her about it. And yes, I talk to my mom because she always knows the right thing to say and she cheered me up. Here's a screenshot of the "anonymous" post:

First off, an open mic is not a competition. A competition would imply that people were competing for prizes and for first place. It was an open mic where people could share.

Secondly, we did treat him with respect but he was onstage for 30 minutes talking and we needed to give others who were still in line a chance to read. It was not fair to those who had yet to perform. If any of the other performers had gone too long, we would have done the same thing. We watched the time on all the performers. Never once did we treat him with disrespect, I had to go up and ask him to wrap it up at the 20 minute mark to which he said he was almost done. But 6 minutes later, he wasn't done yet and by that time we needed to move on no matter how close he was to being done with the story. He was very brave in letting people know that he had a stutter and people had made fun of him in high school. It was very brave to stand up in front of people he didn't know and share a personal story. I felt horrible for having to do so but other people still needed to perform. By the way, the drawing we had for all those who performed to get a chance to win a Pizza Ranch gift card? He was one of the winners.

And I felt bad for people who got their poems judged and some people left before hearing the whole thing. We did not censor any of the content, and I don't understand how people can be upset about a poem about violence and assume that all poetry is that way. Plus, this campus has had other events not hosted by the English Club where that event used worse language than that poem did. There was a poem about domestic violence where it started out with a beating and it was harsh, but in the end of the poem it talked about how the behavior was wrong. People who left before the end of it have no right to comment on it. If you would have seen the audiences faces, we were just as shocked by the violence but we stayed till the end to hear him say how wrong it was. Poetry is meant to be provocative, and the domestic violence one was. It brought attention to what actually happens and the performer did a great job.

The post made me feel horrible but you know what? The person who wrote this "anonymous" post is a small person because you don't understand how long it took my advisor to get me to go up in front of people to tell him he needed to wrap it up. That I was almost in tears of embarrassment in doing so. But I have nothing to feel ashamed of or sorry for. I had to make sure that other people got a chance to perform.

I will not allow a small-minded person to make me feel horrible. The Open Mic night was a success and from now on we will have a time limit. I was glad I presented my poem and I'm glad that people were brave and shared their songs, stories, and poetry.

A Sea of Tears

Here's another poem I wrote. It's called "A Sea of Tears". 

Drowning in a sea of tears

The worst of my fears

Coming true

Losing the one you love

The waves crashing down on the cove

That was once your life

Heart ripped in two

Because there’s nothing I could do

To stop you leaving

All the memories we’ve made and shared

The ways you showed me you cared

Where are you now?

You said you’d always be there

Imaging being without you makes me aware

How empty I feel

Wanting to lose myself in this feeling

To be washed away instead of dealing

With the pain

Never-ending rivers flow from my eyes

Wishing it all to be lies

And for you to be back

Pulling Petals

This is just a short poem I wrote. While I do love writing lovey dovey poems (especially since I'm a huge romantic), I figured some people would appreciate this :) I thought it was kind of funny personally to think of the flower's point of view!

I’m so sick of this love crap!

I’m past the point of no return, I’m gunna snap!

Day in and day out, you tear the petals apart,

Flowers brutally murdered due to matters of the heart!

You think it’s easy to be a flower?

Flower power yeah right! Flowers have no physical power.

Do you know how many times I have sat and watched

My friends and family petals ripped off and they get debauched?

How can you do such a thing? Our petals make us desirable

Much more than any jewelry or bauble.

Our petals attract insects with much needed pollen

So forgive me if I seem rude and sullen.

Without our petals we die, I’m not being melodramatic!

Nothing can bring us back. Not water, not sun. Don’t you dare try the Heimlich!

Everyone knows we have to photosynthesize to survive

But without our beautiful petals, we just shrivel and our life takes a nosedive.

Death is the only answer, for we were uprooted from the ground

All so that love could abound.

Bullying & To This Day

This video should be seen be all. I first saw this video when a friend on Facebook shared it from a page named Andy Biersack. Don't know who they are but I liked this video.

The saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" has always bugged me. Because I would rather break a bone than have to deal with the names people can call others. Or to see people be told they aren't good enough, whether it be in a classroom or during a sport. A broken bone can heal physically faster than any emotional pain that comes from being told that you are ugly or you aren't worth it and even worse, you begin to believe those people.

True beauty isn't skin deep. Even beautiful gems like diamonds must be put through tons of pressure.

To experience this and to watch other people go through this, it's so hard not to get angry. The pain of those feelings smoldering into anger, needs to be replaced by something only the great I AM can give us. Forgiveness.

Like the video says, there's a reason we are still here. And we deserve to be happy because there are people who truly care about us. And I want you to know that no matter what you are going through, no matter what people say about you or the names they call you, you are beautiful.

Luck or White Lie...Fingers Crossed

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at some point in their life has had a superstition. For me, the one I still find myself doing even as an adult is crossing my fingers for luck. Especially when I'm sitting waiting to see a score, I'm crossing my fingers for good luck. I don't actually believe that crossing my fingers will give me luck but it's a habit I had as a child and still have not broken today. It's even mentioned in everyday life and in movies and songs. Here is an example of song that uses this phrase for good luck:

Today I'm going to give you some background theories about probable origins of the finger crossing superstition. I will then try to give you an example of how crossing our fingers for luck or to annul the white lie that we told. After that I will analyze the story and an extra scenario so that you can see what I'm talking about with superstitions playing a part in the fallacies in our logic and reasoning.

Have you ever wondered where the concept of crossing your fingers came from? According to www.wisegeek.com, one meaning of crossed fingers could be bringing good luck and warding off evil spirits or witches. The origins have been hard to find and it is believed to have begun during a time period between Pre-Christianity and Early Christianity. While researching, I came across information that I had never heard before. There were those people who believed in "sacred geometry" and they thought that gentle spirits lived in intersection of crosses and this required two people. Seiyaku.com also mentions this theory as a possibility and they refer to the intersection as the "Solar Cross". One person would hold out his or her index finger while the other would put his or her own index finger to form a cross. These people then used this method to make wishes.

The next theory that WiseGeek talks about is one of my favorites. It deals with secret societies and just seems to resemble one of my favorite games Assassin's Creed about a secret society. Christianity became an outlawed religion during it's early history. It's followers had to form a secret society and to protect their identities they had to develop secret hand signs to be able to recognize each other. Talk about insanely cool!! I mean it would be horrible to have to resort to secret meeting in order to avoid getting caught and quite possibly tortured. But the idea of secret societies and conspiracies makes interesting fodder for a fantasy novel (keeping that idea for later).

Another theory that interested me was when a possible origin of the modern day version of crossing fingers was mentioned starting up around the time of the Hundred Years War from 1337 to 1457. Individuals on both sides of the army needed all the luck they could get and archers would have crossed his fingers and quickly prayed before pulling the bowstring back. Why do you think the archer would cross their fingers? Was it for good luck so that they would hit their target? Perhaps once while they crossed their fingers and shot they hit the intended target so they figured it would continuously do so, turning it into a superstition.

To break away from the theories of luck and warding off evil, most of us as children would cross our fingers when telling a "white lie". According to Wikipedia, this could have sprung up from the belief that the "Christian cross"could possibly save a person who told a lie from going to hell. Which brings me to the next thing I would like to address about fallacies and superstitions affecting logic. I would like to help illustrate how superstitions such as finger crossing play into our logic and reasoning by sharing a short story I wrote. Try to see if you can see some fallacies and superstitions. 

As I'm walking home from school, I know I'm toast. I know mom is going to ask me how the test went. I thought I did so well, how could I have failed? If mom finds out, I'm grounded and have to miss the school dance. Maybe she won't ask and I won't have to tell her. Even if she does ask, I don't really have to tell her do I? I pause on our stairs with my hand on the door. I mean what she doesn't know can't hurt her right? Plus I will make sure to do better on the next test to help boost my grade back up. All of this bad luck I'm having all because I walked under that ladder last week. How will I survive seven years bad luck? It won't really last that long will it?

I hear mom vacuuming the living room so maybe I can sneak past her. I quietly step into the entryway and close the door as silently as I can. I slide my shoes off and peak into the living room. Mom has her back turned so here's my chance. Sliding across the hall, I hasten upstairs to my room. I get into my room and I hear the vacuum shut off. Dog gone it! She heard me on the stairs. She calls up to my room but I put my headphones in so I can't hear her. I pull out my chemistry book just in time. Mom opens my door and motions for me to pull out my headphones. 

"How'd your test go honey?"

I brace myself and put my headphones down. What should I say? Before I know it, my mouth started talking before my "filter" could kick in. "Oh, it went good. It was a hard test but studying helped." I replied with my fingers crossed hidden from mom's view. 

She smiled at me. "That's great! You can still go to the dance tomorrow. Just wait, I got you something." She disappears from my sight. How could I lie to her? But... it's not like I'm hurting anyone. I mean, it's not like I killed someone. All I did was tell a little white lie. What could go wrong?

Mom came back hiding something out of my view. "You know that dress you wanted to get this weekend? Well, I went back and picked it up just in case you passed." She was beaming.

I felt horrible. "That's great mom."

Did you notice all of superstitions and fallacies in logic in this story? Did you notice how the main character justified lying to her mom by saying it wouldn't hurt her? Well physically, no it wouldn't but it would hurt emotionally that her daughter had lied to her. Did you also notice that the daughter crossed her fingers when she lied, and still as a teen she thought that it would cancel out her lie? The daughter also blamed walking under a ladder as the main cause for her  failing a test rather than take the blame herself for not studying or being prepared. And to the daughter, this seemed to be logically sound. We know better and can see this for the fallacy in logic it actually is.

So why do we still cross our fingers for luck or to "cancel" a promise? Why do we still practice other superstitions like black cats? We know that superstitions such as this can affect our logic yet we still do them. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, studying supposed superstitious behavior in pigeons. His theory has been adapted to explain superstition in humans. Basically this would mean that we continue to practice or "believe" in superstitions because of two main reasons: 1) the person thinks that by continuously practicing the superstition it will eventually work; or 2) the practice of the superstition has coincided with an event or result and could continue to do so either at random or continuously. Which makes sense if it happened as a child. If I'm remembering correctly, I observed someone else crossing their fingers in several instances and as a kid I thought that it was magic because they seemed to always get what they wanted. And as a child, we are extremely influenced easily by what we see or hear.

You can't make fun of people who are very superstitious because most people still hold onto some superstition - consciously or unconsciously regardless of good or bad reasoning. This could range anywhere from finger crossing to avoiding stepping on cracks to ways of breaking the hex like knocking on wood, etc. Here is a video of two comedians and their take on superstitions. 

While this video is funny, it shows how superstitions can contribute to fallacies in logic and reasoning. For example, they believe all the things that go wrong (towel on the floor, interrupting the breaking of a hex, breaking a mirror, black cat) can affect the basketball game they are about to play. The are a bit extreme in the lengths they go to "break the hexes" but this is a comedic sketch. But some people who are this superstitious could go to the same lengths. Can you now name some superstitions you still hold on to? Do you notice it affecting your judgement in any way?

Luck or White Lie....Fingers Crossed Draft

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at some point in their life have had a superstition. For me, the one I still find myself doing even as an adult is crossing my fingers for luck. Especially when I'm sitting waiting to see a score, I'm crossing my fingers for good luck. I don't actually believe that crossing my fingers will give me luck but it's a habit I had as a child and still have not broken today.

Have you ever wondered though where the concept of crossing your fingers came from? According to www.wisegeek.com, one meaning of crossed fingers could be bringing good luck and warding off evil spirits or witches. The origins have been hard to find and it is believed to have begun during a time period between Pre-Christianity and Early Christianity. While researching, I came across information that I had never heard before. There were those people who believed in "sacred geometry" and they thought that gentle spirits lived in intersection of crosses and this required two people. Seiyaku.com also mentions this theory as a possibility and they refer to the intersection as the "Solar Cross". One person would hold out his or her index finger while the other would put his or her own index finger to form a cross. These people then used this method to make wishes.

The next theory that WiseGeek talks about is one of my favorites. It deals with secret societies and just seems to resemble one of my favorite games Assassin's Creed about a secret society. Christianity became an outlawed religion during it's early history. It's followers had to form a secret society and to protect their identities they had to develop secret hand signs to be able to recognize each other. Talk about insanely cool!! I mean it would be horrible to have to resort to secret meeting in order to avoid getting caught and quite possibly tortured. But the idea of secret societies and conspiracies makes interesting fodder for a fantasy novel (keeping that idea for later).

Another theory that interested me was when WiseGeek talked about the possible origin of the modern day version of crossing fingers. They talked about the Hundred Years War from 1337 to 1457. Individuals on both sides of the army needed all the luck they could get and archers would have crossed his fingers and quickly prayed before pulling the bowstring back.

To break away from the theories of luck and warding off evil, most of us as children would cross our fingers when telling a "white lie". According to Wikipedia, this could have sprung up from the belief that the "Christian cross"could possibly save a person who told a lie from going to hell. Which brings me to the next thing I would like to address about fallacies and superstitions affecting logic. In the meantime, enjoy this video I happened upon that has lyrics pertaining to crossing fingers for good luck:

So why do we still cross our fingers for luck or to "cancel" a promise? We know that superstitions such as this can affect our logic yet we still do them. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, studying supposed superstitious behavior in pigeons. His theory has been adapted to explain superstition in humans. Basically this would mean that we continue to practice or "believe" in superstitions because of two main reasons: 1) the person thinks that by continuously practicing the superstition it will eventually work; or 2) the practice of the superstition has coincided with an event or result and could continue to do so either at random or continuously. Which makes sense if it happened as a child. If I'm remembering correctly, I observed someone else crossing their fingers in several instances and as a kid I thought that it was magic because they seemed to always get what they wanted. And as a child, we are extremely influenced easily by what we see or hear.

Here's another video for you to enjoy about superstitions:

Superbowl, Wings, & Little Smokies

My family had a typical Superbowl party at our home that included 2 cousins, 2 of my brother's friends, my parents, my boyfriend, and myself. With the unanimous decision that we wanted the Baltimore Ravens to win, we watched as Alicia Keys sang the anthem and waited for kick-off. No one was grabbing any of the food, so I got to be first in line. First choice of the wings (which were amazing), a scoop of little smokies & meatballs, and the first handful of BBQ chips. Of course, once I started eating everyone else quick ran to the kitchen in between plays to get food. I was not too concerned because neither were my teams and the game really isn't over until the last handful of plays in the fourth quarter.

I thought it was pretty neat that the coaches were brothers. In my opinion, the better team won the Superbowl and the majority of the commercials were pretty good. The only commercial I didn't like and thought was a bit disgusting (and showed twice!!) was the GoDaddy commercial. If you missed it, it was a blonde Barbie-type girl who represented the "looks" of GoDaddy with the stereotypical computer nerd who represented the behind the scenes. And they made out... Very gross actually, to watch on TV and it zoomed in on the making out. Ewwwww....

That's beside the point though. I thought it was interesting that the lights went out and the game was paused for about half an hour. It really changed the momentum of the game. The Ravens were on a roll and after that, it was like the pause that San Francisco needed to come back. I thought San Francisco would win the game until that play in the endzone. You know the play, the one that many people think should've been called as illegal contact or something or the sort. I will agree that there probably should've been a call, but I'm very glad there was not. The way I understand it is if it would've been called, San Francisco would've gotten the ball on the 1 yard line with a 1st down. That would've been the end of the game. But the play wasn't called and based off of who was pumped up before the lights went out, I think the right team won. I found this picture hilarious:

Here's another form of media for you to enjoy. I really do like this video!

Side-note: If you are following this blog and my New Media blog, this will be a repeat for you. I had to post about the Superbowl on my school blog, but I also wanted to on my own personal blog.

So Homework...Right

You know when you are supposed to write down when your assignments are due so you know when to work on them before they are due? Yeah...I'm not very good at that. I do try, just sometimes I miss things. Take for example today: I got to school thinking I had gotten all my homework done. Right after my ARTD class, I run into Briana (a good friend of mine). She asked if I had gotten my video done for my next class. My heart skips several beats as I realize I forgot about that assignment. I rush to my room because I have an hour before that class and the deadline. I spent the first 30 minutes trying to make a PowerPoint with the necessary information. I'm thinking it's going to be a very bland video when I remember a site we talked a bit about in this class. It's called Xtranormal, and it's one of my new favorite websites to use! Here's what I put together in the remaining 30 minutes before the deadline :)

My Precious (said like Smeagol)

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.

But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I absolutely love this version of "Misty Mountains"!! The violinist is Jun Sung Ahn and I really love all of the songs that he plays. He has recorded several songs such as "Some Nights" and "I Won't Give Up", which are among my very favorites along with this song. I will freely admit that I have an obsession, but there's no way I will ever change or become non-obsessive especially about this series :)

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I've always been obsessed with Lord of the Rings. I watched the movies first and then have read the book 7 times. I have the trilogy combined into one book, so that is a total of 1,007 (or 1,004) pages. I just can't get enough of it, plus I've always wanted to be an elf like Legolas.

To wield a sweet bow, have long flowing locks of hair, and talk with that awesome accent. This was probably one of the first novels I noticed that I was sucked into completely and wholly. I have always loved fantasy novels, but my love for them originally started with Lord of the Rings. One of the few books that I can read over and over and over without getting bored.

Come to think of it, this obsession might have been the major contributing influence to my choice in character for Skyrim. As well as the characters of stories that I am working on. But hey, that doesn't bug me. I'm just adding fuel to my obsession with elves, Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.

“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Love & High school

If you know me, you should've known this was coming. Dating & high school is the topic of the day.

Quite honestly, I think everyone forgets what dating actually means. Especially us Christians. Dating is when we are ready to start looking for God's choice for us. When we are mature enough to start looking for our future wife or husband. I would encourage everyone to read "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris. Amazing book and a must-read.

Those who start dating when they are in 6th grade, honestly why? By the time you get to high school, you will have gone on several dates and you'll be thinking what next? Most often that is when couples get in trouble and move on to sex. And when you're in high school, specifically your freshman-junior year, don't use the use "I love you" or describe your boyfriend/girlfriend as "the one". They may actually be the one, but you're in high school for crying out loud!! Enjoy being a preteen/teenager hanging out with friends before you are thrust into the real world wishing that you were still a kid. 

The excuse "If you love me, you'll have sex with me" is so stupid. If that person actually loved you, they would respect your wishes to not and should actually themselves be thinking the same thing. But I know that there are times that you are overwhelmed or do feel strongly for the one you are dating. But I'm also telling you, saving yourself will just make it that more sweet for your future spose. You may end up with the one you are dating through high school, I'm not saying that relationships that start there fail. I'm just saying stay true to yourself and your beliefs. 

An example at a LifeLight event really put it in perspective for me so I'll share it with you. This guy went through his high school and college dating several women and having sex with all of them. Let's pretend this guy is a bed and every time he has sex with a woman that is not his wife, a bucket of mud gets thrown onto his bed. Then he meets his future wife and he falls in love with her. When he's talking to her about marriage and courtship (if you don't know what that word is look up, because you should), she tells him she is a virgin. She tells him that she followed what God wanted for her and was saving herself for her husband. Then he has to tell her that she would not be his first. That he had slept with several other women. And she cries knowing that she will not be his first. 

Besides, say you're "in love" and you decide to have sex outside of marriage. And you wind up pregnant. Abortions are the murder of innocent children, so don't even consider that option. As a high schooler, you could put your baby up for adoption and hope that the adopting parents will allow you to visit your child. Or you could try and raise your child yourself, or push your responsibility off on your parents. And because the whole deal is stressful on you and your boyfriend/girlfriend, you wind up breaking up or in an unhappy marriage because you were forced to put your dreams and aspirations on hold. Don't you go blaming anyone but yourself because that moment you decided to have sex, you felt you were "mature" enough to be able to do so. Well guess what? There's consequences to that. 

A little off topic - but it is very relevant. Here's another thing you should pay attention to. If your family is concerned about how close and "touchy-feely" you and your date are getting, perhaps you should listen to them.  Especially when you have only been dating for a handful of months, you shouldn't even be kissing. Plus you start behaving like a brat (I would say witch with a capital "B" but that wouldn't be very nice & an inappropriate word so we'll stick with brat) to your family, you're obviously doing something wrong. And the moment you disrespect your parents, maybe you should think about how you are behaving. Stop accusing them of being "unfair" and accusing everyone else of being immature. I'm thinking of several instances, some of my own personal experiences included, that I have heard, seen or experienced where if I would've spoken to my parents like that, I would've gotten my butt whipped and grounded for a minimum of 2 weeks. Without a phone. But you know what, I would've deserved it. Because God says honor your father and mother and clearly in that situation, it was anything but respecting them.

Being a little bit older now and being so close to being actually out in the world, please take it from me. You may not want to hear it, but I honestly know what I'm talking about. Mostly through personal experience and then from watching others do exactly what I did (or worse). Stop trying to live your life by becoming something else. Live a life that would be pleasing to God. 

"Dear Lucky Agent" Contest for Young Adult & Sci-Fi Writing

ATTENTION WRITERS!!

A friend of mine just shared this website with me. I know it's due tomorrow, but if you have some writing already prepared submit it here! Don't forget to read all the instructions and good luck everyone!!

http://tinyurl.com/a8msdw2

Thief's Honor (cont. Chapter 1)

James smiled. “Oh nothing. Does the word Creed mean anything to you?” Raven paled. How could he know that name? No one knows about her mother. “No. Why do you ask?” She noticed as James heard the lie in her voice. “Oh no reason. I heard a customer come into the store while I was working at the forge. He mentioned the name Creed to Henri. She told me about it last night.”

Raven was troubled as she and James walked into the Warrior’s Folly. James greeted his wife, Henri, with a kiss before she could greet them. “James Ironhide, shame on you! I’m working!” She turned to him, hands planted on her hips but a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I’m sorry dear, I could not resist.” James nodded in Raven’s direction. Henri frowned as she watched Raven sit down at a table looking troubled. “Is she alright?” James nodded, “She saw him today.” Henri tilted her head, as if asking a silent question that only they understood. James nodded and turned to join Raven at the table.

I need to just ask him. It’s James, he would never do anything to harm me. Raven looked at James. “I lied. Creed means something to me. How do you know that name?”

James crossed his arms. “A lot of what you think you know is about to be turned upside down. Are you sure you want to know”

~

The hooded figure watched from a corner table in the Warrior’s Folly. His face was shadowed so that if the black-haired elven woman would not recognize his features. He shouldn’t have revealed himself in the market, but she had to be the woman Creed had told him about. Her skills at swordplay were very impressive and her eyes reminded him of Creed. It was time for James to put her to the test and see if she was the one they had been looking for.

James had come to him earlier that month. As leader of the Thieves’ Guild, it had been his job to make sure all of the members had been informed of Creed’s disappearance. It was very disturbing with the reappearance of The Illusionist. Creed had only trusted him with the information of who she really was, and this elven woman he needed to find and protect. They had agreed that she would be recruited to be a part of the Guild so that he could keep a watch over her personally.

He only hoped they could recruit her before Creed’s fate became her own.

~

(I'm going to start adding all of this onto the page titled "Thief's Honor". That way you can read it all at once. I'm going to be experimenting with pages so there might be a couple changes in the next couple of weeks. Be forewarned!!)