Beware! It's... MONDAY!!!

As I slowly, blearily opened and rubbed my eyes this morning, trying to tune out the annoying beeping of my alarm clock, my first coherent thought was:

Eew. School.

And now, for a short commercial brake! (An advertisement for a TV show comes on)

Just the whisper of its name strikes fear in teenagers everywhere! Every Sunday night, they feel its presence creeping up on them - Beware! It's coming! it's almost here! Sleep while you can!!! It's... IT'S.... MONDAY!!!

Oh, yes, magnificently malicious Monday. Just saying it's name leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Okay, so I'm exaggerating just a bit, but nobody likes Mondays. For teenagers, it's the start of a new school week. ANOTHER school week. A week of waking up at the crack of dawn, doing stupid, pointless homework, and sitting through lectures. Not really things that one would look forward to.

Even adults despise Mondays. Now they have to get up for work and do whatever their boring job is. And even if it's not boring, chances are they don't like it. I mean, have you ever seen an adult hop out of bed with a huge grin on their face laughing and saying, "YES!!! I get to go to work today!!!" Wait, let me answer that for you.

No.

But there's also GOOD things about Mondays. On Monday, I get to see my friends again. On Monday, I have something to do other than lay around being bored. Without Mondays, school would never start! Now, you may be thinking that's a good thing, but without school we'd all be uneducated neanderthals scrounging for food in the dirt. So, as a matter of fact, there ARE good things about Mondays. You just have to look a little harder to find them.

The hit TV show MONDAY about a horrible monster that consumed teenagers and adults is receiving less and less views. People found out that the monster wasn't all bad, and started to think that the conflict in the story just wasn't worth their time. It seems MONDAY has just lost its ferocity.

Brothers...You Gotta Love 'Em

So I don't think I've ever introduced you faithful readers to my brothers. I have two AMAZING little brothers.

My brother Jace is 10 years old. He's in 4th grade. Like all little brothers, he totally gets on my nerves. But, he's great for stuff like basketball and hanging out. That's one way older brothers are different than younger brothers - the younger ones let you hang with them, the older ones don't. He's totally obsessed with Star Wars. And he is ROCKIN at Legos. No joke. I'll have to upload a picture of some of the stuff he builds. He also has pretty good taste in music for a ten year old, better than I did anyway (Jump5 *cough, cough*). And, get this, he has hair like.... NICK JONAS. I'm not a particular Jonas Brother fan, but pretty much all OTHER teenage girls are. He wanted to cut it off like Indiana Jones and I said, "Dude, your hair is BETTER than Indiana Jones. He couldn't pull it off." Here's a pic of him:

My other brother is Levi. He's only one. And, let me tell you, he's as cu

te as a button. He's totally a ladies' man. He flirts with all the nurses at the doctor. Both of my brothers are adopted, but Jace looks just like us (weird, I know). Levi is African American. He also has Down syndrome. He's scheduled for heart surgery next month. Yeah. But he's such a heartthrob (or will be, one day). Just LOOK at that smile!

Great brothers, I know. You're all probably jealous - I have one brother that's about the cutest thing ever and another that's a future Nick Jonas. But, like all brothers, they do get annoying. Jace is just LOUD. And I don't mean just a little noisy, I mean REALLY LOUD. And Levi has that feeding tube on his stomach that he can't leave alone unless there's a bandage around his stomach. We have to change it every night and it is GROSS. I won't even go into all the details just in case someone here is a tad squeamish. So, what do I do? I flip out and yell. GASP! It can't be! Well, hate to break it to you people, but I'm only human. As are you. Everybody messes up. Like right there, I just misspelled 'messes' about five times before getting it right. Don't beat yourself up when you make mistakes, just try not to make them again.

Putting It In Perspective

So it's the eve of the last day before Spring Break, right? And I'm sitting at the dining room table about to have a breakdown. I can feel the tears coming, the frustration bottling up inside me - it's coming.

Why, you ask, can I be so upset when we only have ONE DAY left until Spring Break?

Because I had too much to do.

Science project, giant math review packet, reading an assigned book, and decorating my "Tennessee Can" for History.

So my buddy came over and we got the science project out of the way, but what about all this other stuff?

The clock read 8:14 p.m. and there was no way I was doing all of this and getting enough sleep. Being a perfectionist, the concept I had to integrate now was foreign and unwanted. This was....

PRIORITIZING (put your tasks in order from most important to least important, and get as many done as you can. Forget the rest.)

So.... science project - done. Math packet - yeah, I needed to get that done (giant test the next day). Reading - I'd do it in homeroom tomorrow. And, by that time folks, I'd be drop-dead tired. So, you know what that means. Yep, I'd have to drop... THE TENNESSEE CAN!!!

Oh, the horror! I would be sent to detention for not getting this done! Well, I thought, at least they can't send me until next week.

I walked into Social Studies class the next day expecting the worst. "Mr. Harley," I said, "I'm really sorry but I left my Tennessee Can at home."

And you know what he said? NOT that I would be sent to detention or ISS or ALC, but that I could just turn it in when we got back. You know what that means...

ALL THAT WORRYING WAS FOR NOTHING!!!

It was all in vain! So next time you think something's going to be the end of the world, put it in perspective. When I'm an adult, I'm not going to be reminiscing about that one time in 8th grade when I forgot my Tennessee Can. If you don't think it'll be important twenty years from now, it shouldn't be overly important now. So just take my advice...

Put the things in your life in perspective.