Today is not going very well. In fact, this whole week has been a hard one, and it's only Wednesday!
Monday started with the usual dump load of assignments - teachers saying "My class is the most important, so forget your other studies and do 1291029 hours of homework for me", or others saying "I'm leaving town this week, so I'm going to leave you tons of busy work. Have fun." My favorite was "If you don't like this subject, you're daft. In fact, everyone should study this subject all day long, so I'm going to force you into groups and you'll research together outside of class - cause I know you all just have bucket loads of time."
Of course, none of my teachers actually said those words, but they were heavily implied. I know they're doing they're job, and helping us learn (I've certainly learned more in these past few days than I ever thought possible), but that doesn't make it any easier. Work is still work, and no matter how much it needs to be done - you can't quite force yourself to enjoy it.
After you're done - after you've received the grade - you usually get this wonderful feeling of accomplish, and you leave with so much added knowledge that all the hours of pain and struggling are worth it - and the summer of sleep to follow makes up for all the nights of unrest. Unfortunately, I have yet to reach that point. Right now I'm still struggling to stay standing.

I had a huge test in German yesterday. I spent lots of the weekend reviewing for it, but only lightly. It was more like skimming through it - because I really wanted to get more work done in my online classes this weekend. So Monday afternoon, after all my classes were done, I sat down on my couch and began to study for real. After a late night of various homework assignments and German review, I went to bed, only to wake up again early in the morning for my 8am Shakespeare class. After that class I immediately found myself a secluded corner of the library to finish my German study. 4 1/2 hours later I left for class and took the exam. I felt prepared - not only had I studied heavily, but most of these chapters I had learned in high school, so it was just a matter of returning to previously learned material. I took my time and felt pretty confidant when I turned it in that I had at least managed a B. Today, I signed online to check my score - 70%. I literally felt my heart fall to the floor. That was NOT what I was expecting at all. I was hoping it would at least be higher than an 80%. Luckily, I know my German Professor lets us look over and correct our own tests so we can raise our grade at least 1 grade letter - but I was planning on being able to use that grade letter to raise my 80 to a 90. I will most likely still pass this class at the end of the semester, but I'm not at this school to pass classes. I'm at this school to do better.
I have another short vocab quiz in my German class today that I am not ready for at all, because I spent all weekend studying for the other test, and the rest of the week doing the things I'm about to tell you more about.
Oh yes, there's more. That was just one little test.
In my Humanities class I freaked out all evening over a photo project I thought was due before midnight Friday night, even running to various stores to buy equipment to fix my memory card so I could turn in the assignment on-time, only to find out that the teacher had canceled the assignment during the one day of class I missed that week, and that he had failed to update his syllabus online so I had no idea about it.
Then he proceeded to announce that there was a video project due this Friday before midnight, and that since I was gone when they assigned groups that I someone else put me in one. This girl is really nice, and the other partner in our group I would assume is as well, but I don't know either of these girls well - because they NEVER come to class. And I mean almost never. Their seats are right behind mine and they're almost always empty. Granted, I've missed quite a few of these lectures too, but I always talk to the professor about it, or ask someone in class what I missed, and I haven't missed even half as many times as these girls. And now I have to do a project with them. To make matters worse, today in class he told us that it is now due tomorrow at midnight. I haven't even had a chance to talk to these two girls in person about the project yet, let alone meet with them (their seats were empty again today). So I told them (via text message) to meet me tomorrow in the library so we could start and finish this project. Hopefully they'll show, and the one girl I have met will tell me what the topic is for our project, because I don't even know - as she picked it the day I wasn't in class. Otherwise I'm just going to make something up on my own and turn it in.
In my Shakespeare Class we've been working on our own film adaptations of any of his plays - that was going well for the most part, until I hit a major road block in my story development, and had to redo the whole project from the beginning.
In my Book of Mormon Class my teacher signed up to be in the Nauvoo Pageant for the next two weeks, so he left us a TON of work to do while he was gone. I love learning about the Book of Mormon and all (in fact, I love all these subjects I'm studying) but I really have no time for it, especially since it's the end of the semester and ALL my teachers are giving us more and more to do.
So for this Book of Mormon assignment, we have to read 3 Nephi 24-25 and literally analyze everything about them. I've looked up every footnote, followed almost every topical guide reference, read the chapters in the Institute manual, and the Seminary manual - plus both teacher manuals for each of those classes. I also uploaded the Sunday School lessons on them, and found cross references, bible dictionary sources, hymns, quotes, talks and other various media linked to the chapters - and I still have about 10 more of his "study skills" to go before the paper is done. His sample paper was 7 pages long, I don't know how I'm going to make mine under 10 pages at least! There's too much he wants us to look into. I've already spent hours on this paper and I've got hours to go. It's due tonight at 7.
To top it all off - I have a group presentation for this same class today at 4:30. Luckily it was a group thing, and unlike my Humanities class, I got placed with some of the top students, so we were able to finish the power point relatively fast on Monday. We even had a weird topic - translated beings - but we conquered it like pros so I'm not too worried about this one.

So, on top of those 4 classes I'm supposed to be doing my online classes, which average in at about 4 hours a chapter. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. I even slept on my couch last night, because I stayed up so late doing homework that I didn't even make it back to my room. I may sleep there again tonight - it was really comfortable.

Last complaint - I promise: to add to the ball of fun this week has been, I've been doing all these homework assignments and projects on a computer with a broken screen that need to be periodically taped to keep from blacking out - and likes to randomly flicker just to keep things interesting. A computer for which I do not have the time or money to fix, so I'll just have to live with for the rest of the semester.

Also, I ripped by jeans today. My belt buckled accidentally got caught in the door on my way to class.

I'm sorry this post turned more into a rant about my life instead of something fun and uplifting - but I needed to let off some steam, so I can make it through the rest of this week. I know that when I am done (in just 3 short weeks) that I'll be able to embrace that welcomed rest and enjoy my 7 week break, but until that time I'll just keep working.

Time to go back to my Paper. I'll end on a happy note.
3 DAY WEEKEND AHEAD!
That'll give me time to practice and make headway in my online classes! Which I am, believe it or not, looking forward to. That and movie night on Friday, which my brother will be having with me whether he wants to or not. I could use the break, and the pizza.