Finals Week

Finals week is here. I can’t even being to try and study anymore. I’m so studied out. My first final is Monday at 10:40. It’s my Calculus two final. I need at least an 88 to get an A in the course and I’m striving for that A. It’s sad that this is my last math class. I like math and will miss it, but I’m not trying to take Calculus three. That will honestly hurt my brain. My second final is Tuesday. I have my Biology 230W final at 10:40. I’m striving to keep my B right now. I hate the fact that I’m even excited about a B at this point. I like having all A’s. I’m a perfectionist in what I like and it’s killing me that I’m not perfect at this class. I will settle with a B for now because a B is way better than a C. My third final is Thursday at 8:30. It’s my Chemistry final and I am so ready to be done with that class.

This semester as a whole went really fast. The days went by way too slow for me and classes dragged on. It’s crazy that I’m already done my third semester of college. Five more to go until graduation. Hopefully, my classes for the rest of my years at Penn State Abington till benefit me and won’t make me have to wait to graduate. I really should think about what I actually want to do with my life. I’m happy to be majoring in Biology, but I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. I guess only time will tell.

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break went way too fast! I feel like I wasn't even away from school. My week was good though. I got to see my friend who goes to Penn State-main campus for the first time since August when she left. I missed her! She has been my best friend since grade school. Even though we went to different high schools and now colleges, she still remains my best friend. I can talk to her about absolutely anything and not feel judged in anyway. She is such a genuine and sweet person. I also saw another friend who goes to CCP. He is super hyper and has a lot of positive energy surrounding him and when I am around him I pick up that energy and it is such an amazing feeling. Being positive is the only way to get through life. Negativity brings negative things to people's lives and no one seems to realize that. The world needs more people like my friend. He is an all around good guy and he tries to make everyone feel accepted in this harsh world we live in. I had to babysit a sick little boy named Quinn on Wednesday. My poor neighbor had a fever and a bad cough. He is such a cutie. I couldn't stand seeing him being sick. When his mom got home from work early, she went to pick up her other two kids from the bus stop. The little girl Mariah came home and they found out she had pink eye, and then Quinn got it! I really hope those kiddies feel better, but I also really hope I don't get sick from being around them. That'd be a nightmare.  Thursday was a good day with my family. I'm extremely glad it was just my mom, dad, two brothers, and my sister for dinner. If anyone else from our family was there, the day probably would have sucked. Black Friday shopping was not in my schedule on Thursday night or Friday morning. I'd rather pay full price on something than go to a store at midnight or any other time in the AM and risk getting it anyway. After hearing a lady used pepper spray on people, I think I'm okay with staying home and not going through all that mayhem.

School has started up again and I'm not looking forward to two weeks of learning stuff I don't care about anymore. I am over school this semester. For some reason, this semester has been the hardest yet. I have no idea why either. I think I just need winter break and I'll be fine and ready for the spring 2012 semester. I have to finish this one first and I need to finish strong. I have a lot more quizzes and homework due so I'll be good I hope. I got a 92 on my last biology test! Thank God! It brought my grade up only by two points but whatever.  Two points up is way better than two points down. I just have to stay positive that my grade can come up and I'll do well. I'll study harder than ever for my next test and I'll be ready to ace it!

I can’t wait for this semester to end. One more week and we’ll all be free from school, until January rolls around.

Short Short- The Plane

            They had been on the airplane for three hours already. Time was moving slow for the newlyweds. They had planned their dream wedding during the holiday season and couldn’t wait to spend their first night together as husband and wife in Italy. Allie sat with her hand intertwined in Michael’s and stared at the ring on her finger.

            “Mrs. Michael Taylor,” She whispered to herself.

            “I’m so happy with you,” Michael said.

            Allie smiled and ran her fingers through her hair.

            A baby started crying in the back on the plane. The mother stood up and started walking up and down the aisle with the baby. She passed Michael and Allie and smiled. From the look on her face, she was tired and worn out, but when she smiled, Allie knew she’d give everything up for her child.

            “I can’t wait to have kids with you Michael,” Allie said.

            “I think we can wait a little bit. I want to get settled as a married couple before we throw another person in the mix.”

            “Are you scared?”

            “You’ll be a great father. Don’t be scared.”

            “But babies are so fragile. I’ll break it.”

            “You won’t break ‘it.’ ‘It’ will be your son or daughter.”

            “I know. I just want to wait.”

            “We will handle whatever comes our way.”

            The plane started to shake and Allie squeezed Michael’s hand as hard as she could. She had never been on a plane before. This was her first time and she wasn’t prepared for anything to happen.

            “Relax, sweetheart. It’s just a little turbulence. I’ve been on planes plenty of times to know when something is really wrong or when it’s just a little turbulence. I’m sure the pilot has everything under control,” Michael said.

            “Just hold my hand and everything will be fine.” Allie said, worried about her flight.

            “Let’s just finish watching the movie. We’ll be in Italy soon.”

            Michael and Allie were watching Allie’s favorite movie, Titanic. She had always been obsessed with the love that Jack and Rose had after knowing each other for only a few hours. She wanted love like that and she found it in Michael.

            Finally relaxed, Allie had her eyes glued to the screen. She had forgotten about the turbulence and the crying baby until the plane started shaking again. She looked at Michael with heavy eyes. She was scared and he knew it. Michael put his arm around her and held her tight.

            “Don’t worry. It’ll stop like last time.”

            “I hope you’re right.”

            “Aren’t I always?” Michael said, sarcastically.

            Allie smiled at him. She knew Michael was always a sarcastic man and she loved that about him, but when she wanted him to be serious, he never was. She needed to be reassured that everything was going to work out perfectly.

            The plane started to decline faster and faster. Allie looked into Michael’s eyes. Her eyes screamed for help. Everyone else on the plane started to scream. Babies cried, adults cried. No one knew what was happening. No one could even think. The destruction on the plane caused chaos and overwhelmed everyone.

            “I’ll love you forever,” Allie said.

            “I’ll love you until the day I die,” Michael said.

Thanksgiving Break

All I can say is thank God for Thanksgiving break! I need this break more than anyone else I know. For some reason, this school year has just been so difficult. I’ve never had a difficult time being in class and doing my school work. I love learning and being in class, but not this semester. I am so happy this semester is over soon. My classes are fun and don’t bother me. I’m just not into doing the work.

I have so much work to do over break. It’s not even going to be like ill be on break. I wish I had a free day off, but I don’t. I tried to do my work on Saturday morning, but I got absolutely no where with it. I stared at it wishing it would finish by itself. I have to read, finish my story, and write a short-short for English class. I have to finish a chemistry lab. My chemistry lab is so difficult to do. Dan, a guy in my lab, who is a teacher’s helper or something like that, said the lab was even hard for him to do. That doesn’t make me feel too comfortable about having to do it by myself. I have to finish my biology lab. I have to do a lot of research for it. Thankfully, it won’t be too hard once all the research is done. I have to watch a movie for my religious studies class, read chapter 11 in the book, and write an essay on a movie of my choice that goes along with my religion class.

This is not a lot amount of work to do, but this is not what I want to do while I’m on break. I just want to do absolutely nothing for a week. I want to sit on my couch and catch up on episodes of The Big Bang Theory and Supernatural.

I hope this week I can start running again. I really miss running and working out and trying to stay in shape. I think my energy levels will go up and I will be able to hopefully get my school work done instead of waiting until the very last minute. I’ve never been the student to wait until the last minute, but I’m slacking this semester.

On a sadder not, Friday around three o’clock, I got an email about a kid that just graduated in May 2011, who died. It is absolutely horrible that he died. I didn’t personally know Kevin, but he was still a part of the Penn State community. It is a shame. I can’t imagine what his family is going through right now. Death always seems to strike when the holidays roll around. I will pray for him and his family. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

I couldn’t imagine losing anyone that I’m close to. I thank the Lord every day for the blessings in my life.

much needed break

It seems like every time a break seems to get closer and closer more work is piled on students in school. I can’t even think about the amount of stuff I need to do before Thanksgiving break and during Thanksgiving break. All I want is a week off to do absolutely nothing. I don’t even want to think about school. Thankfully the year has gone pretty fast and it’s almost over. This semester was a bitch and still is.

I have a Chemistry test Monday and I’m mostly likely going to do horrible on it. There are always those questions that are on it that are never talked about. We aren’t told to look in the book for what we have to know. Whatever we do in class is what we have to know, but then there’s a question thrown at everyone and it just ruins my mood. I don’t like knowing before my grade is given to me that I got a question wrong. It absolutely pisses me off for the rest of the day and weekend depending on when the test is given. Hopefully this test goes well especially now that I can’t drop a class. I’m stuck with every class I have now and if I do bad, I’ll be so mad at myself.

I have to watch the movie Citizen Kane for my religious studies class. I was warned before class ended on Thursday that I’m going to hate the movie. I really do not have any motivation to watch it, but I have to. I am so glad this class is almost over. I’m ready to stop watching stupid movies every weekend for this class. Most of the movies haven’t been too bad outside of class, but inside the classroom, the movies we watch are horrendous. I don’t even know how half of the movies I’ve seen are made into movies. I don’t understand how people thought some of those movies would be a hit. They are just bad. Hopefully I can get through most of the movie and get ready for class Tuesday.

I have a Biology test on Thursday. Every Biology test is difficult in some way, but this one I feel like I know the least about which isn’t looking to good for me. I need to put so much time and effort into this class. From today until Thursday, my life will revolve around genetic code, transcription and translation of a gene, gene control, the endoplasmic reticulum, the golgi apparatus, and lysosomes. The tests are always fair and should be easy for anyone who knows their information like the back of their hand. It should be known at the snap of a finger for this class especially for those people who Biology majors, like myself. I have to have self control and sit down and study for hours.

This last week before break needs to go fast. Every student and teacher is probably itching to be done for the week. It’ll be such a peaceful week if I can get a lot done over the weekend before Monday, November 21^st is here.

Thursday, November 3rd

            Last week, I was able to schedule classes for next semester. Thursday night I was so tired by the time ten o’clock rolled around. I never stay up late during the school week. I like my sleep and after waking up early for school, I like to go to bed at a decent time. It was ten o’clock and I’m trying to stay awake. It was so difficult. I literally had to stay moving or I would have fallen asleep. Thankfully the time flew by and it was 11:45. I was so ready to schedule. I had every class I wanted ready to type the numbers in. When the clock struck 12 midnight, my computer froze and Elion had a problem. I received a message saying all bunch of shit, but in bold the website said Environmental Dump. I was freaking out! I wanted to schedule classes and get the times I wanted. There were only a few seats left in some of the classes I needed so I did my best to get on right away. It took me ten minutes to sign on again. This didn’t just happen to me, but I still got screwed when it came time for me to type in the numbers. I got three out of the five classes I wanted. I was so annoyed and now my schedule absolutely sucks. I had to set up my watch list and have it text me when someone drops the classes I want. No one has dropped them yet and I’m pissed. There has to be a better way to schedule classes. I cannot wait to be a senior and be the first to schedule. There are times when I wish I played a sport because athletes have first priority over everyone else. It’s a bunch of bullshit. I need my classes!

            Also on Thursday, I got my Biology grade back from my test. I got an 85. I was disappointed until I saw the average in the class. Not a single person in three sections got an A. Mostly everyone did horribly so an 85 was good enough for me at that point. After I was excited to see how I did on the test, I was given a pop quiz. I got a 40 on that. Not too excited about that one. I really hope I can do well on the next test and the final and hopefully we have more quizzes that I won’t do absolutely crappy on. My lab grades will hopefully help my grade come up a few points. I just want this semester over now!

            After I bombed my quiz and lab was over, I went to the orthodontist. I had my mouth open for two hours while they put my stupid braces on. They are such a pain in the ass. I never thought I would hate these so much. I’ve always wanted them and now that I have them, I wish I never got them. But I know they will help me, so I just have to get over it. I hope I’m not in them too long. I just hope it ends sooner than I think. The worst part about them is that I can’t eat what I want to eat the most. I am a candy freak. I love all kinds of candy and it is killing me to not eat it. Temptation is always in the back of my mind and it has only been three days, I don’t know how I’m going to survive if I can’t eat candy for a year! I will probably go into shock. I live off of candy.

School

     This past week has pretty much sucked. On Monday I was told I was going 
to have a math quiz and chemistry quiz on Wednesday. Math I was okay 
with, but chemistry was going to suck. My teacher loves to show us 
examples on the board and then make his quizzes a million times harder 
and completely different than what he teaches. I understand teacher 
want to challenge kids, but if we aren't given basic questions, there's 
no learning.  I am a good student. My grades mean the world to me. I 
hate getting anything less than an A. It drives me nuts. I do all of my 
work and I study for hours.
     On Wednesday, my Chem quiz was just like I expected. It was super hard 
and it was on things I was never taught. I thought, "this is just 
fucking great." I was pissed. My math quiz ended up being super easy 
and I finished within fifteen minutes. I needed that after a stupid 
Chem quiz. 
     On Friday I went to my chem teacher for help on a lab. Thankfully, he 
helped me and didn't tell me a story that wasted 10 minutes of my life. 
I never understand where he's going with his stories. He told me that 
he graded my quiz and then he explained everything. I told him that I 
wasn't taught this so that's why I did so bad on this quiz. He looked 
at me confused. I explained myself again saying the problems he did in 
class, don't help anyone on quizzes because it's different material. 
Nothing bothers me more than teachers who teach one thing and make the 
tests or quizzes so much more difficult. I don't understand why we 
aren't given basic questions or challenging questions that at least 
deal with what we are taught. After I got over the fact that I got a 
6/10 on my quiz, my math class started and I got a 30/30 on that quiz. 
That completely made my mood go from pissed off and annoyed to happy. 
     On Thursday, I had a biology test. If I didn't do well on this test, I 
was just going to cry. Being a biology major, I better do well on my 
tests. I felt that I did well on it, but I won't know until Thursday, 
November 3. The wait is killing me inside. My anxiety is pumping 
through my veins as I sit here and write this. I just want to know my 
grade!
     After my biology test, my mom took me to the orthodontist. I was forced 
to go when my dentist said two weeks ago that my jaw shifts when I open 
and close my mouth. I thought it was just tmj and i was like eh 
whatever I'll be fine, but no, I was forced to go. Now, I need braces 
and some type of funny head gear to wear at night because my jaw is 
bone against bone when I bite down, and that is what causes my 
migraines. I have been to some many doctors because of my headaches and 
no one ever knew why. Now we know. I'm happy I went and was able to 
figure this shit out but I've been in pain since Thursday because of 
these stupid spacers in my mouth so they can put braces on November 
3rd. I can't wait to say I'm 19 and I have braces. People already think 
I'm just starting high school, but it'll be worth it. I'd rather have a 
little pain now than a lifetime of headaches. 

Team America vs F&F

            Because last week was so much fun, I decided to go back to King of Prussia for another flag football game. These football games are fun for lazy Sundays. It is something to take my mind off of everything else and just have a good time.

            At eleven o’clock this morning, Team America had another game to play against F&F, family and friends. F&F won the championship last year for the first time. They beat the best team in the League, The Bar. F&F is now the best, and they continued to show that they were today. F&F beat Team America 40-something to 0, Team America got their asses kicked.

            Team America switched quarterbacks throughout the game. Bob, Mark, Tony, and Alex all played quarterback today. In the first half of the game, we didn’t even get a first down. It was absolutely pathetic to watch. We should have played better. Bob is usually a good quarterback, but he never played before. He is actually one of the only people who has ever played football on the team but he was never a quarterback. Mark also played football, but he wasn’t a quarterback either, but he should have been. He is the best quarterback on the team. Tony was quarterback last week and didn’t do too bad. Alex was the quarterback for The Bar last year. He quit The Bar and wanted to play for Team America because we take it less serious and have fun. Today just wasn’t anyone’s day.

            On gender downs, I wasn’t thrown the ball too often. Instead of having the ball thrown to me, I handed it off to Sean, who ended up getting hurt. He was running with the ball and was trying to get through a crowd of people trying to get his flag and he ended up knocking heads with someone on the other team. Sean wasn’t allowed to play the rest of the game.

            Team America is now 4-5 for the year. We are in 7^th place as of last week, but because the website hasn’t updated yet, I don’t know where we are standing. Playoffs start the first week of November and hopefully Team America can pull through and win some games. Next week we play the Ravens. This team is really good. They lost today though which makes them 5-3 for the season. Their loss was like a kick in the stomach. They could have won on the last drive, but they weren’t able to make the play. It was devastating. Hopefully next week Team America can pull through and beat them making our standings higher and there’s lower. It will be a good game.

            I am so sore from these games I’ve played. I’ve never given credit to anyone who plays sports. This is hard as hell and I’m glad I don’t love sports that much. I don’t like being sore and I hope it goes away soon or I’ll bitch forever.

           

            For the rest of this week, I hopefully will be able to get more running in. I have a biology test that is just going to kill me. There is so much to know for this test and I want to do really well on it. I need to bring my grade up in that class and nothing is going to stop me from doing that. I am willing to put every other class behind me this week just so I can do amazing on this test. It is so important to me. The stress from everything makes me crazy and running should help me get my mind off of it. Thank God for Thanksgiving break! I can’t wait for it and I just want it here.

Team America

            I was going to run tonight, but I ended up getting a lot of running in that I wasn’t expecting. This morning I went to Scott and my brother’s flag football game. In their league, they need to play with a girl. A girl has to get the ball at least once in four downs. Today, there was no girl, which would mean that they would have to play a person down and would only get three chances to get a first down, so I stepped up and played along with my brother’s girlfriend.

            Every Sunday, the Philadelphia Flag Football League has games in King of Prussia. There are ten to twelve teams every fall and spring season. Team America is the team that Scott and my brother have played on for the past year and a half. My brother’s friend, Chris, is really into the league and makes shirts every season. He made a special one for September 11, the day the fall season started. It had the twin towers on the back and said “proud to be an America.” Now the shirts the boys and girls were say USA and have the names of the guys from the Mighty Ducks on the back. Usually each team plays once a week, but this week there were two games Team America had to play.

            The first game started at ten o’clock against the Saints. When I started playing, I didn’t know how good the Saints were, I just knew that they had played at the nine o’clock game and would be worn out. That was not how the game went. On third and gender in the second half, I was thrown the ball, but I had it knocked out of my hands by this dude who was a foot taller than me. I was really pissed. I had a chance to get a first down, but I just couldn’t. In the last two minutes of the game, Team America was up by a touchdown, until the Saints threw a long pass and scored, making the score tied, nineteen to nineteen. The Saints ended up getting running in the extra point, since there is no field goal, and they won twenty to nineteen.

            The second game was at eleven o’clock against the Stallions. They played at nine o’clock also, but not against the Saints. The Stallions were a good team and had two girls on their team. Team America ended up scoring first, which gave our team a lot of momentum to keep going and not giving up after a loss in the game before. We were all tired as hell but it didn’t stop us. We ended up winning 27-19.

            It was a lot of fun playing today and I was surprised by the endurance I had to run and play in both games. I don’t think I would have been able to even play for the first half of the first game if it wasn’t for the running program I started at the end of August. Playing today made me want to get back into the program. I really think I will start again in December, once school is out of the way.  

TMJ

I wasn’t able to run again today. I had to babysit again and then my mother called me and told me I had a dentist appointment. I love going to the dentist. I love the feeling of my teeth right after I get my teeth cleaned. I found out something interesting when I was there though. I opened my mouth, but not wide enough so I was told you open wider and when I did my jaw moved. My dentist made me close my mouth and open it and close it and open it again. Each time my jaw moved. I found out I have some form of TMJ and may need braces to fix it. I do not want to get railroad tracks on my teeth at 19, almost 20, years old. It’s not cute. Now I had to do to the orthodontist, who I hate. She is such a bitch. She will probably want to put me in braces, but I won’t let her. My jaw hurts and I’m just annoyed about it.

Because I didn’t run and I was, and still am, annoyed, I decided to so some jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups. I absolutely hate doing push ups. I don’t want to look like some jacked dude. That is absolutely repulsive for a girl to look jacked. I don’t think just push ups will make me that way but just in case they do, I try not to do many. Sit ups are the best though. Every girl wants a flat stomach!

I wish I had fall break

I wasn’t able to run tonight sadly. I had to babysit all afternoon and now I have a ton of homework to do. I usually get my homework done way ahead of time, but it’s not easy when my Chemistry teacher puts things up so late. It’s super annoying and doesn’t help me when I have a lot of other stuff going on. I wish I could run tonight but I can’t. School is more important than running or doing any kind of activity.

I really wish Penn State had a fall break. I need one right now. Everything seems to be piling up during the same week. It seems like teachers get together and decide to put every paper and every test during the same week. I don’t understand it. This is why I need to run. Everything piling up at the same times causes so much stress on me and I can’t stand it. I just want to have a break. I need it.

I hopefully will be able to run tomorrow if I get more school stuff done tonight. I hope I do. I really need to study for my two tests Friday. I just have no motivation to do it and I have no idea what is going on in either class. Looks like a failure on both those tests. Whatever.

beautiful day

            It was absolutely gorgeous out today! It was an odd day for October weather, that I know of but it was great. I definitely don’t miss the warm weather and summer. I prefer a sunny day with a cold breeze. I don’t like being hot. There’s no way I could ever live in an area that didn’t have four seasons. I like the nice break between the frigid weather and the disgusting humidity and heat.

            I ran after work today with Scott. My knees didn’t hurt for once but my legs did because I forgot to stretch. Oops. Oh well, not a big deal to me. I’ll stretch later tonight before I go to sleep. Running today sucked in this weather. I miss the cold now that it has arrived. The cold weather is so much easier to run in and I feel like I can breathe so much better. I hate the humidity and heat. It makes me so sick.

            Just as a side note, it sucks that the Phillies lost and that the Eagles keep losing. Philly teams seem to be going downhill and it doesn’t feel too good to be a fan of either team right now. The Phillies hopefully can do well next year. For the Eagles to do well, they need to get rid of Andy Reid. He is absolutely horrible. I could coach better and I don’t know a lot about football. He is worthless. If he gets fired, we need a coach who can take the team where it needs to go.

Side Steps and Butt Blasters

Today I decided to not go running. I don’t feel like it at all. To make up for not running, I did what my brother told me to do. His workout for me involved using resistance bands. He told me to do alternating chest press, pushups, overhead press, bicep curls, squats, lunges, side steps and butt blaster.

            For all of these I did two sets of ten. It was all pretty easy, until I started the second set. The resisted pushups were the hardest and I probably won’t be doing them ever again. I am a girl and girls should not be doing pushups. I felt like a man doing it and that’s just wrong. Squats and lunges are just as painful as pushups. The squats with resistance are harder than without obviously. As I went down into the squatting position, I had to pull on the resistance band and that was super annoying. I don’t care about this stuff so I don’t know why I put myself through it. The side step and butt blaster were my favorite. Hopefully working on these glutes will tone it up so it’s not absolutely disgusting. I want a toned body, not muscular. That is why I like using the resistance bands. I won’t be building muscle like a dude. Thank God.

october 4th

Tonight I ran for twenty minutes again. It’s starting to become the same routine and I know I need to push myself forward. I need to start running for longer periods of time and taking longer walks in between. It’s going to be hard and I’m not going to want to do it but I have to. I don’t know when this will happen but it has to. I have absolutely no motivation to run anymore. I do not care for it. I just want to stop, but I know I shouldn’t. I feel so much better after I run. I have more energy to do things. I don’t feel like napping all the time. I like being active, but I just don’t have the time anymore. I don’t feel like putting in any effort.

            All I want is for school to be over for the semester and then I can put more effort into running and being more active. School has taken over my life and so has working. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life at this point. College is flying by and I need to step up my game. I just need more motivation. I hope I can find it soon.

            Tomorrow, I’m going to try to start to run more and start a new workout routine my brother made up for me. I hope this works. I better not have a ton of work to do for school cause that will ruin everything.

October 2

I have started to completely hate running. School has taken over my life and I have no time to run. I haven’t been running as much as I would like to, but I still try to fit it in. I think I’m going to start running while I’m at school or doing something else to make up for lack of running.

                Tonight I ran for three minutes and walked for a minute for a total of twenty minutes. It is getting much easier to run for three minutes. I’ve been trying to lessen the time I take to walk. When I slow down my walk, I end up having a harder time running, but it’d worth it. Each second counts. I prefer to run around six o’clock. I also love running in the cold weather. I am able to breathe so much better. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to with the cold weather because it would make my chest tight, but it is ideal. I’m not dying from running in the heat.

                I am not running in the 5K anymore at the end of October. Hopefully while I keep running in the winter, I will be able to run a 5K in May.  I will be able to focus on running more when school is over and spring is here.

i'm not keeping track of the week

Yesterday I started my running again at three minutes. I ran for three minutes and then walked for a minute and a half for a total of twenty minutes all together. It was much easier than running for five full minutes. I don’t know if I’ll ever work my way up to that. I like running for only a little bit and then walking. It’s much easier and I was told I will see more results if I do intervals. I need to give my muscles rest. I can’t push my body if it doesn’t want to be pushed. There is nothing I can do. I’ve tried to work out more than just running. I try to do sit ups and pushups every night and use resistance bands for stretching. My brother is really into working out and he knows everything you could about wanting to get into shape so he is trying to help me. I have to try to make more time for it but it is difficult with school. School comes before anything else.

                I stress out so easily with school. Trying to stay active really helps with my stress level. If my stress level is down, my anger level is down. People who lack common sense really make me angry. I don’t understand them. I try not to get angry but my stubbornness kicks in and I want everyone to think like I do. This is why I like to stay active and get really good night sleeps.

                Thank God the weekend is almost here.  

week four day two

I decided to run after school today, instead of at night. That probably wasn’t the best idea. I went out at four o’clock when it was still hot. It is much easier to breathe when I go out at seven o’clock and it’s much cooler out. I like to blame my breathing problems on my parents smoking but today I couldn’t keep going for a run. I finished three minutes of the run and walked for a minute and a half. That was fine. When it came to running for five minutes, I only ran three and a half minutes of it and had to stop. I began to feel very light headed and couldn’t breathe very well at all. It’s disgusting to me that I can’t even run for five minutes without feeling like I’m going to pass out because I can barely breathe.

I decided instead of going along with this program, I’m going to go at my own pace. Since my sister gave up on going with me, I’m going to continue week three’s program and get very comfortable with it and then move onto what should be week four so I can actually complete it. I was really disappointed in myself today. I wish I was able to finish it. I’m not going to let what happened today stop me all together. I like running and I like the way I feel when I’m done running. I like getting a good night sleep too.

week 4 day 1

Tonight I started week four day 1 of C25K. I started out with a five minute warm up walk to get ready for a three minute run followed by a minute and a half walk. This part wasn’t bad. I was ready for it because of last week. After the minute and a half walk, I had to run for five minutes. I’ve never been able to run for five minutes straight and it was really nice to say that I was able to do that. I finished the five minute walk feeling good about myself. After the five minute walk I had to walk for two and a half minutes, followed by the three minute run again. That was tough after the five minute run with only two minutes of walking. After the three minute run, instead of walking for a minute and a half before starting the five minute run again, I had to walk for three minutes to try and catch my breath. I was not ready for another five minute run. I started my five minute run and I thought it lasted a lifetime. It took forever to end but it did. I was really proud of myself. I didn’t think I would be able to run for five minutes. I was going to give up after running for three minutes the second time, but Scott made me run. He told me I should take the extra walking time because the running is what really matters so I listened to him and I’m glad I did. I’m glad its over.

week 3 day 3

I just completed week three day three. Today was the hardest out of all three days. I didn’t feel like running. My body is sore from it and completely weak. I hate the changes in weather. My allergies decide to take over my whole body and make me feel like complete crap. I had no energy to run, but I did. My sister and I weren’t even into it. We jogged as slow as we could without making it a fast walk. We just didn’t care. My knees also hurt more today than yesterday. I didn’t get enough rest. The walking I do at school isn’t easy on my knees either. I never thought that running and walking would do so much damage to my body. I never had a problem with walking before. I have always walked as much as I do now, but because of the running, the walking has become a problem on my knees too. I’m glad today was my last day of this week. I can finally rest until Sunday night when I start week four. I want to just give up, but I can’t. Running helps relieve stress from school. I never had this much work for school in my life. Running every day takes me to a different state of mind. I’m not thinking about the chemistry quiz I just bombed and how I have a test Friday. I just focus on finishing this run so I can get home and go to sleep. I just want my knees to not hurt and for mother nature to stop making me feel like crap.  

Week 3 Day 2

I just completed day two of week three. Tonight was a lot harder than Sunday night. My knees started hurting the minute I started running. I don’t know what is wrong and being stubborn, I probably won’t get it looked at until I’m in serious trouble. I know I need to take time off from running and walking a lot but I don’t want to. I set a goal and I want to finish it. I stopped running five days a week and cut it down to the three days it calls for. I don’t care anymore about trying to push myself to five days when I’m in this kind of pain with my knees. All together, my running was successful. It was easy at first like usual and a drag at the end but I was glad it was another day down. Tomorrow I will run for the third and final day and be able to rest again until Sunday.

I’m proud of my achievements. My sister and I push ourselves every time we run and it feels great after. I love running at night, coming home and relaxing, and then crashing. Since I started running, I’ve gotten the best sleep of my life. I usually have a hard time staying asleep because my mind wanders but I am usually just so tired so I pass out. I love running and hopefully I can continue after this program and find a new one to start to push me to run a 10k.

Week 3 Day 1

Well, tonight I completed week three day one of C25K! I really like this program the more and more I run. I was able to run the minute and a half and walk a minute and a half, without any problem. The three minute run went really well the first time, thankfully. I was so excited that I was able to run for three minutes straight without wanting to just stop, fall over, and die. I kept a good steady pace. After the three minute run was a three minute walk. That was a nice amount of time to cool down. The next minute and a half run wasn’t too bad either. I was able to do well with that. Sadly, though after the minute and a half run, I had to run for three minutes again and that was rough. My body is not used to running for three minutes straight. It’s not used to running at all. I made it through though. It took a total of eighteen minutes and it was enough for one day.

On the even more positive side, my knees did not hurt me when I was running! I definitely needed the rest and I needed to take it slower. I tried not to run at a really fast pace. I felt like I was slamming my feet into the ground before and that was not good on my knees. Tonight was a great night all together, but I’m glad day one is over and can’t wait to finish day two and three.

Week 2 day 3

Tonight I completed week two day three. It wasn’t too hard, thankfully. The first minute and a half run is the hardest and the last is just as hard. I don’t like starting and I just want to stop when I know I only have four minutes left out of twenty and I still need to run one more time to finish up.  My knees hurt in the beginning when I first started the minute and thirty second jog, but didn’t hurt as much as I kept going and finished the twenty minutes. I really hope my knees don’t stop me. I’m taking the next three days off from running and hoping that will help my knees recover. I can’t keep going on if I’m in pain and that really bothers me. It pushes me my limits and it isn’t fun anymore. I wish I could just get new knees and go back to not being in pain.

Right now I’m ready to go right to sleep after the run I just finished. I wish I could go in the morning and be wide awake for class in the morning but it won’t work out. My sister refuses to wake up any earlier than she has to now that her summer has been extended with the archdiocese being on strike. When she finally goes back to school, she isn’t going to want to wake up at five o’clock just to run with me. I can’t wait to start running in the cooler weather.

Week 2 Day 2

I just finished week two day two of C25K. My knees hurt so badly today when I was running. The pain wasn’t intense, but it was just in the way of doing what I wanted to do. I felt like stopping, but I didn’t and I hope that it won’t affect me negatively later. I really hope that it will get better. My sister and I have gotten faster with our running! I’m proud of the progress we made so far, even though it has only been two weeks. It’s better than nothing in my eyes. I enjoy running more and more every day, except tonight. I’m glad it’s over. I do not want to even think about next week’s run. I don’t even want to think about tomorrow’s run. I wish I could just be done, but I know I can’t.

Two boys from Hatboro Horsham died recently and there is a 5k in the beginning of October. I’m going to do it with my sister and hope we finish. I don’t care if we don’t finish but I’d like to see how far we can get. My cousins Niki and Alexis are going because they knew the boys. It will be fun to go with them. They are more athletic and run more than I ever would, so it’ll be a good challenge to try and keep up with them. Hopefully we can do it and its for a good cause so why not try and see what we can do.

Week two day one.. again

Eagles won today! It was great seeing a football game again. I really miss going to my brother’s games, but now I get to watch my little brother play in high school. It is really exciting. Those men out there that play have the kind of speed and agility I hope to have after the end of C25K. Tonight, my sister and I started week two day one again and to our surprise, we did really well with it. It went super fast. I recommended to her that we run the streets instead of that annoying track that has hills and an uneven path that has been wrecked from something, I don’t know what. We talked the whole time which really helped with our breathing and we listened to Eminem. His music is pretty real to me, so it helped push us. He had a rough life and he made it through and is still fighting. It was a great way to get ourselves fired up and ready to run again. It felt great to run, which is something I never thought I’d ever say! I hope that the weather cooperates this week and doesn’t stop us from running too much. I want to be done this program before it starts to snow! Hopefully, even when it does snow, we will be able to still run and keep up with it and maybe even push ourselves even further. I cannot wait to run again tomorrow!

running, what?

This week has absolutely sucked. There was nothing I could do about my running. I know I have the availability to use the gym at Penn State Abington but I chose not to. I cannot run on a treadmill for my life. It hurts every part of my body, and I feel super uneasy when I’m done. That is definitely not safe! I wish I could have done more this week with my running, but I’m not worried. On Sunday I am going to being Week two day one again of C25K. I know I can’t move onto week three unless I’m fully confident in how I did week two. I’ll be able to have a better hold of what I can do if I’m pushing myself all at once without giving up, and having to skip days because of the annoying weather. I hope it all works out this week!

I do have a goal now, and I am super excited about it! Last year, the boy’s gym teacher at Archbishop Wood passed away. This year right before their homecoming, they are having a 5k race, in his name. Because my mother, father, brother, sister, and cousins all knew him because he was such a big part of Wood, my sister and I are going to run for him. We won’t be done our nine weeks of the program yet, but we will be close. It will be nice to see how far we can push ourselves even if that means we need to walk for a few minutes. We will be ready for the challenge!

Rainy Tuesday

Yesterday I started week 2 day 2 of C25K. It was must easier than I expected. I changed up the scenery and ran around the neighborhood instead of the track I usually run with my sister. Instead of running with her, she took the day off and my boyfriend came with me. He helped me push myself and I was able to finish. I was completely out of breath when I walked in the door, but I know if I push myself I will only be helping myself in the long run. I do not want to end up having problems as an older adult. I want this and I want it bad.

I love the rain, but not when it stops me from running! I really look forward to my runs every day. Even though the running has been hard, I enjoy running because it relieves my stress from school, especially after my chemistry lab and lecture. Today should be week two day three. I should be gaining more stamina and endurance. It gives me energy to get through the rest of my day. After a long day at school, I want to come home and unwind. Running helps me do this. Sadly, I won’t be able to run, but there is always tomorrow. I just hope that it isn’t any tougher on my out of shape body.

C25K

One week ago I started a running program called C25K. It stands for couch to five k. This program is for people like me who do not exercise regularly and are not in shape. The program calls for three days a week, but my sister and I are doing five days instead. We enjoy going together and getting a nice run and walk in. The first week started with a five minute walk, with sixty seconds of running and then ninety seconds of walking for a total of twenty minutes. At first this was a lot for me. I really noticed how out of shape I was! By the fifth day I knew I could go for the nine weeks. Tonight, I started my second week, adding an extra thirty seconds to the walk and thirty seconds to the running. I thought it would be easier now that I finished the first week and was able to do that, but this was much harder. I finished it though. It helps that my sister is doing it with me. She gives me more motivation to push myself and go that extra step especially when I feel like giving up. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow, but I know all I want to do is make it to the end of the nine weeks and be able to say I completed this task. I want to be in better shape and I want to finally be able to run for thirty minutes straight or run 3 miles.