I've been meaning to make this thread for a couple days now, but I got sidetracked. Since it's late at night 2 days later, now I remember to make it. Hopefully it isn't obvious that I'm kind of tired

As I posted in the school forum, I'm officially a senior in high school (12th grade!). I found it hard to believe before, but because I've had a week to enjoy summer, it hit me. This is the last summer before I pretty much have to get a summer job (my first job, in fact) and I lose the seemingly infinite amount of free time I'm used to. This is the last summer where I can enjoy a lot of time with my friends, only prevented by family plans, vacations, and youth group outings (which, actually, are with friends anyway typically).

I had a very rough year. Since I quit, for lack of a better word, the JROTC program at my school after last year's explosion of drama and too much responsibility, the roughness was because of the actual schoolwork. I made a few new friends but 2 of those friendships didn't work out. I lost contact with other friends for the most part because they went to a career center for the rest of high school. The school year started out easy, then got hard, then got just brutal. My hardest classes were all crammed into one trimester, but by God's mercy and help, I got the best grades in the hardest time.

Much of my time was consumed by not just homework, but ACT prep. It felt like a waste of time, especially since whenever I was tested to see what I learned I forgot most of it XD After 2 months of ACT prep, my overall score went up. By one. Stinking. Point. My parents payed a couple thousand dollars for me to do it so because of that and what I mentioned above, I quit that in April. I was relieved. My schedule would be opened up a little bit, right? Lol no it wasn't. During this whole process, I struggled to remember to visit vizzed. When I did, I felt tired and lazy so I remained inactive.

At the end of April, I finally made my return here. I remained inactive until summer vacation, but not as bad as before. Interacting with everyone again made me realize I don't need to chat with real life friends all the time. I can chat with people here too, as well as help the forums by posting. I'm trying to pick up on all the slack I had for the entire school year!

Looking back on this year, it definitely changed me a lot. Not only am I better at talking and working hard, but I'm also better at balancing my time! I'm more consistent with my hobbies instead of doing the same thing every day: playing video games.

I've discovered that I like fast-paced days, but that doesn't stop me from getting bummed out that life is moving fast as Mario Kart at 200cc. I take my final ACT on Saturday and I get my senior pictures on June 15th. I'm trying to enjoy the ride this summer, but for a few days in a row, I stop and end up thinking about how this is all temporary and that every day is a gift from God.

My plan for this summer from the beginning was to make this "selfless summer". I no longer see a point in playing video games when I could be making an impact. Since my volunteering on Wednesday nights at the middle school youth group is over for the summer, Wednesdays feel a little more lonely. However, I'm fortunate enough to see some of the same students on Sunday mornings at the smaller youth group. And I'm really fortunate to now have 2 of their emails so I can be their friend when I don't see them. I'll be off to college after this year, but I'm hoping to keep those friendships lasting longer than a year, unlike many of my high school friendships.

Speaking of college, my dad has been making calls to colleges. We're already talking about scholarships and I'll likely be touring in the fall. I keep thinking, "Whoa! This is happening?!" about everything but especially that.

How does all this apply to vizzed? Well, unlike this school year, I want vizzed to be a part of my life again. I always see such great support from vizzed members and I want that back I thought I'd fill you all in on where I'm at since for the most part I've been fine, but lately I'm getting emotional. The more support I surround myself with, the more I can enjoy my youth while it's here.

Lastly, as I've mentioned in other threads, I wanted to be one of the users that starts a new wave of activity here. My intention is to have small posting sprees every week of the summer to prove that we don't need to be in a Tour de Vizzed month to be active. The jerseys don't matter; the posts and discussions with other members do. If there's any way I can contribute better to the site, I'd like to do so.

Thank you to those who clicked on this post.

You are so right man and you really are making a difference, if not to others, then to me!! I notice how much you post and I know everyone else does too; it is very encouraging, please keep it up, for our sake!! I didn't know and didn't consider how busy some people's lives actually are outside of Vizzed, but you've reminded me. Hey you could give me tips whenever you can, I will be a sophomore this year and I need as much advice as I can get XD I hope and pray that you score the highest on that ACT coming up man and I really hope you get into the college you want to get into and that you find the perfect summer job! I believe in you and the rest of us here do too, thank you times a million and I will try my hardest to do contribute as much as you have. Thanks again man, you've changed my day and gave me immense inspiration. Best of luck!!! (^U^)

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PoptartSlayerXD: I appreciate the kind words and prayer! It's been cool seeing you become so active on the forums too. The most basic and useful advice I can give you (that I haven't given already) is to figure out an effective way to manage your time.

Time management has always been one of my biggest struggles with school. It's actually better for your brain to take a little break from schoolwork once you get home, but there should be emphasis on little. My definition of "little breaks" has been an hour or two and that put me behind on completing my homework so I had to stay up later to do it.

My idea for when I go back to school in August is to time myself on my breaks and then push through my homework. If I can't seem to concentrate on my homework after half an hour, I'll take another small break, hopefully by exercising.

I'm so happy this thread inspired you! I'm about to make another thread because I just realized I hit an important milestone on vizzed.