I am so ready for this week to be over! It's been dragging on and on, and right now it's only Wednesday. I feel like it's a Thursday or Friday. I wish it were, because I have so much homework this week and really nothing to look forward to until the middle of next week. At least then summer will be right there, but it still seems so far away! It's making me crazy.

I got my ACT scores back yesterday. They were good, but I think I'll retake it. I really wanted one score and I just missed it by two points, so I think I'll shoot for that.

Graduation is Friday! I have to be there to escort the seniors down the aisle. I just keep thinking: next year that will be us! I really can't wait.

:)

School is so close to being out! I really can't believe it. And then after that I'll be a senior! It's so weird to think that, but it's happening soon. I just remember being a freshman and thinking how long it would be before I was a senior, and in reality time flew. That sounds really cheesy, but I feel like for the past two years I've just blinked and the school year was gone. It's unbelievable.

We also got a new puppy. Her name is Sadie, and she's really cute:) She's some kind of a hound, and my mom and siblings picked her out at PetSmart a couple of weeks ago. That's a picture of her up there. :)

What a crazy few weeks! I've been completely swamped by activities, tests, and homework. Last week was the ACT/PSAE, which was stressful. Plus, while the PSAE was alright, the ACT was torture. Also, this week was the AP Lit test, which I think I neither aced nor bombed. It was just kind of so-so. On top of all this, I have two Powerpoints due this week, a paper due Sunday, and did I mention this is May Fete week?

That's right, tonight's May Fete. I'm super excited. That also means that in three weeks, I will officially be a senior. That's crazy. I can't even wrap my mind around it. I'm really glad I'm almost done with high school, but where has my time gone?

Spring is here! I'm so excited. My favorite time of year is that day when you wake up, and the sun is shining, and the birds are singing. And you just think, "The world's alive!" We've had a couple of days like that this week, and boy am I glad.

Also, spring break is here. Even though I'm not really getting that far away from town, I'm going to my dad's for a few days. I haven't been there for more than one night in months, so it'll be nice to have some time with him. I just hope it will be warm!

This is going to be the last time I write for a few weeks, because of break and the ACT/PSAE. Let's just hope everything goes well!:)

I always forget about this until the last minute, so this week I figured I'd get it out of the way early. That way I don't freak out at eleven o'clock tonight because it's slipped my mind.

The play went great! It was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad I did it. I've been so busy with it lately that it's weird to not have to be there all the time. I can't wait to do it next year! We're doing West Side Story, which I think is awesome.

Prom is tomorrow! I'm pretty excited. I hope it'll be a lot of fun. My dress is taking forever to finish, though. I was supposed to pick it up Wednesday, but when I got there it had a hole in one of the layers of skirts! They had to fix that, but my mom's going to pick it up in the morning so everything should be fine. I can't wait!:)

The play is tonight!!! I'm really excited about it. I've never been in a musical here before, but I'm glad I did it. It's a good experience and it's really fun. I'll be glad to have all my time back, but it will be weird to have all that free time.

I get to go to that journalism conference! I'm sooooooo happy about it. I literally cannot wait to go. Also, it's at George Mason University, which is one of my top picks for college. My picture was in the paper for it, but it was a really embarassing picture that my mom happened to have on hand when they called to ask for it. Haha. But that's the only downside to the whooole thing:)

I completely forgot to do my blog this week. I always forget until last minute, but this week I literally forgot until tonight at the dinner table. It totally slipped my mind.

The play is coming up this week! I'm really excited because I love Beauty and the Beast (yes, even now.) Also, everything looks really cool and sounds good. It's going to be a stressful week, though. We had practice until ten every night last week, and this week is going to be worse. We have dress rehearsal two nights and performances from Thursday night on. And last Friday, we did a flash mob at Wal-Mart! It was a lot of fun, and a ton of people showed up from the cast. Everything on this show is going great:)

I almost completely forgot to do this this week. Luckily, my wonderful friends were talking about it and I realized I hadn't done it yet. Yay for friends!:)

I got inducted into NHS this week, and got elected President. I'm really excited about it.

Also this week, 4th Quarter started. I can't believe it; I only have one quarter of my junior year left and then I'll be a senior. It's really exciting to think about, but it's also pretty scary. I'm still not sure what I want to do with my life, and it seems like I have to decide very soon. Time is just moving so fast, and I don't know how to feel about it. But I do know that I'm going to be excited to be a senior!:D

Okay, so I don't have anything too interesting to report this week. I've just been busy with school, so I guess I'll talk about that.

I made it into National Honor Society, which I'm actually really excited about. I don't care how nerdy it sounds that I am excited about it, because I think it's an honor to be selected (which also sounds cheesy, but whatever:).

The spring musical is coming up too. This year it's Beauty and the Beast, which I think is great because, even now as a seventeen year old, I love that movie. I play a knife, which means I wear part of a suit with a giant glittering knife stuck to the back.

And I forgot! Maybe I do have something interesting. The YMCA Jr. Hangar Board is trying, along with several other Illinois YMCA's, to set the Guiness World Record for most Rubiks Cubes solved in one hour in one place. So this week, at Hangar Board, I solved a Rubiks Cube! It pretty much made my life. :)

I can't believe it's Friday! I honestly don't know where this week went. I don't think I've done anything really interesting lately. In fact, I know I haven't. I've just been busy and stressed almost 24/7 for a couple of weeks.

So, since I have nothing to write about, I'll try to think of something interesting. Hmmmm....I really feel like I need to get back into photography. I've stopped taking pictures since my first semester photography class ended, and I don't like that. I like catching a great moment on my camera. I also like having something to remember what was going on at that time in my life, and I think pictures are the perfect way to do that. They capture just a split second of life, but that moment is what leaves an impression on people later on. :)

I have so much to do! This last couple of weeks have been beyond busy. I've had two applications to fill out: National Honor Society and the Paris Scholars application. I've just been constantly busy and stressed. It's ridiculous. And exhausting.

We've been reading Fahrenheit 451 in AP Lit, and that's really interesting. It's kind of been freaking me out. It's set in a future-istic time when technology has completely overrun people's lives, and books are banned. I think it's weird to think that we could possibly be heading towards that. I had to mention it because it's been bothering me.

Okay, and prom is coming up really fast. I have my dress, but I need shoes, and I plan on getting them tonight. And I have a YMCA auction to work Saturday, and May Fete Sunday. So I have a busy busy weekend coming up, but that's nothing new. (:

I have not had a good week. I just feel like everything has been going wrong. Not so much that everything has been going wrong, really--but I've had so much to do lately that time has been getting away from me. And I don't get very much sleep, so that kind of adds to the whole thing. I just wish I had some time to myself once in a while. Even though this weekend is going to be busy, I think it will be fun. I've been wanting to do May Fete for my entire high school career, but this year I'm actually going to do it. So I'm pretty excited about that. Also, I'm going to visit a college on Monday. It's the first one I've gone to see:)

This week I turned seventeen! It was an awesome birthday. I am so ready to be seventeen. It just feels like it's going to be a good year!:) Also, this week I had WYSE, which is like a day where nominated students go take tests in certain areas. The tests are really hard. Anyway, at WYSE they were having drawings, giving away t-shirts and pencils and stuff like that. Then they started giving away electronics, like PSP's and a laptop and Ipods. I never win anything, ever, but this time I won an Ipod Touch, which was funny because I got one for my birthday literally five days ago! So that's my funny little story of the week!:)

Ice storm! That's what happened here in Paris this week. An inch or two of ice on the ground, strong winds, and negative temperatures meant four snow days for us:) It was also a great opportunity to take pictures, which is what I did yesterday. Everything is covered with ice and icicles, and it looks really cool. I got pictures of the trees, the grass, and various items in my front- and backyards. I just like the way everything looks when it's icy-like it's glass. I do wish it was spring already, though!

Oh, and that journalism conference I was talking about last week? I got in! Now I just have to fundraise the enormous amount of money it costs to go! :)

Also, I'm putting one of the pictures I took yesterday up.

So this week I've been really frustrated. I've been home sick for the past two days, and that just makes me feel worse. I hate just sitting at home, doing nothing, because that means that I've missed things at school. And make-up homework is the worst. So my mom has had to make me stay home, which I guess is good for me, but I still get bored. Also, I have a big paper due next week, and I'm having trouble getting started on it. I can't seem to find the research for it, which is really bothering me. Basically, this week has just been one big fail. On the other hand, I applied for this journalism camp that I reeeeeallllyyyyy want to get into this week! I won't find out if I got in for another couple of days, but I'm hoping that I do.

P.S.-For anyone that reads this, I promise it won't be so gripey every week! I just had a few bad days, is all:)

Welcome to my blog!!! Since this is my first post, I think I should start out by telling just a little bit about me. My name is Rachel, and I am a junior in high school in a little town in Illinois. I actually like school and learning, especially English and history. Also, I'm involved in a lot of school activities, which means almost no free time, but that's alright with me. In the free time I do have, I enjoy photography, which I love, and reading and writing and tennis. I also love to spend time with my friends, who are fun and great. I could go on about the things I love to do, and my interests, but that would get boring so I'll move on. Basically, I want this to be a blog about life, and my thoughts on it, and all that good stuff. I hope you enjoy!:)