Let's Get Real

Sometimes it's so easy to blog about the beautiful stuff and forget to let everyone know you are human.  Today I'm being honest and letting you in on my real life.


In school I've always really struggled with reading and test-taking.  Especially standardized tests.  Every since I was young, I've had poor reading comprehension, which would cause me to take twice as long to read something as someone else, and at the end of reading it, sometimes I'd have no clue what I even read.  I was always last in finishing the reading, last in reading an article and responding to it, and being last was not okay with me.  


Somehow I think this reading comprehension issue was translated into my standardized test taking skills.  But mostly, I just struggle with severe test anxiety.  I could study for hours and know the information backwards and forwards and still,  I psych myself out before the test even begins.  In high school I could manage this because 1) tests weren't worth as much of you final grade and 2) The tests were a lot easier than in college.  Now in college, it's been much harder because tests are worth way more than projects and homework {which I excel in} and boy, the tests hard! Multiple choice tests get me every time.  For some reason when my brain sees all the answers, I suddenly begin freaking out and thinking that any of the answers seem right.  I'm much better at fill in the blanks, short answers or essay questions because I feel like I can fully unload what I know and show the teacher I really studied by explaining my answer.  


This past quarter I've been really down about my scores on exams, so when I had a test this past Thursday, I felt like just giving up and not even studying. But my mom encouraged me to still put effort in and continually be in prayer.  Take a deep breath and be confident in my knowledge of the subject.  
So that's what I did.  I studied like crazy, verbalized the information out loud while studying, wrote it out on my whiteboard {yes, that's how I study}, and tried to relax as much as possible.
I took the test and right after the test, we were able to grade it.  As I was correcting my test, I had the biggest smile on my face, because answer after answer was correct.  Was this really MY test?! Yes it was!  I ended up getting a B+ on the test, and that was like getting an A in my eyes.  

The next day I got an A on a quiz, too! I don't know what's happening, but I could start getting used to it (:  It's just what I needed to give me that extra confidence to get through the quarter.  Right when I was the most frustrated about the situation was when it turned around.


This taught me to keep trying. Keep putting in the effort, because someday it will pay off.
Mama, I'll send you the test in the mail soon so you can hang it on the fridge.


In other news, my mom sent me this picture this morning:

Apparently, Shasta goes in my room and lays down a lot now.  The cute little fur-ball misses me. Let's just be honest mom, I'm her favorite. 4 more weeks, Shasta, then I'm home!


Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,



PS. If you missed my headband hair tutorial because of the craziness of blogland, it's over here.