Stress Free

A homework assignment I read tonight, written by my firstborn.


Stress Free
I can be rather worrisome and stressful. That is why, by the end of this year I want people to think of me as stress free. I think that by being stress free I could be a better student, daughter, sister, and friend. Besides by stressing over the littlest things, the people around me mentally note that I would not be good in a crisis. That is why I need to be stress free.
One thing I need to work on in order to be stress free is to quit worrying about every single possibility. I need to understand that whatever happens is what happens, because there is no time machine to go back and fix it. I also need to lighten up about whatever happens, because I can deal with it. Walking around stressed will get me nowhere in life. One more thing I need to accomplish in order to be stress free is the ability to live in the moment.
Another thing that I feel I am struggling with is the self-control to let go of little, unimportant, things. To master this skill, I need to focus on bigger things such as family and religion. I also need to recognize that the past is unchangeable and the present is what I need to focus on. I have decided to make this my motto; “Yesterday was the past, tomorrow is the future, today is a gift, that is why it is called the present. But I will still remember my old motto; “Dream as though you will live forever, live as though you will die tomorrow.”
One last thing I need to work on to be considered stress free is being able to cherish every last moment .That is the meaning of stopping to smell the roses, which I consider an important life skill. I also have to enjoy the life of a kid, as it will not last forever. Truly understanding the people around you is also very important. I also need to slow down.
By the end of this year I want people to think of me as stress free. One last reason I want to be stress free is because if I stress too much I will get stomach ulcers (yikes!). If I was stress free I would have a clearer mind, and with that, the sky is the limit. The people around me will trust me more because I will be able to keep a clear head in a crisis if I were stress free. That is why this year, my word is stress free.
as written by Molly Wooster

stringent

so when you take something for granted, it really hits you in the face when reality strikes. my sweet molly recently scored high enough on her spelling test to advance to the class spelling bee. she did this last year, if you remember and made it all the way to the county bee as a fourth grader. she also made it pretty far in the county bee, getting out when there were only a handful of crazy smart private school type kids left.
she did not just assume she would win the class bee, she studied several nights preparing for it. these were the same words as last year, so it wasn't a lot of work for her to memorize them.
i knew when she got off the bus, walking slow with her head hanging what had happened. immediate tears as she fell into her daddy and just sobbed. poor baby girl.
the word she missed was the very first round. stringent. she has never missed that word. it has never even gotten a second thought from us, she spits it out every time.
honestly, she is like a robot going through them, just firing them off, one after another, amazing.
she said she got up there and started to spell it and the boys in her class starting giggling at her. the teacher had to stop them, and then she just repeated the in again... a no no for spelling bees. no repeating, no do overs. so she was out.
rats.
no big deal in the grand scheme of life, but huge to a fifth grade sensitive bookworm.
the girl has hives from crying so hard. i dont know what to tell her, but to tell her we love her no matter what, and this just wasn't the plan for this year.
i might be a tiny bit relieved we don't have to study for the next three months... but not enough to watch her cry.
there is no greater pain my heart feels, then when i think about my kids hurting, getting laughed at, or feeling disappointment. all necessary growing pains, i realize... reminds me when i would get hurt as a child and my mom would flinch in pain herself, saying it was like a knife twisting in her stomach. i get it now mom.