This is me. I think it's apparent that I need to rethink my life a little bit. What's my problem? 14 years old. 9th grade. 5 months in, and Quarter 1 isn't even close to done. Not a surprise, considering how my pace has degraded from year to year, through no ones fault but my own. More than once, I've learned what happens when you let yourself be carried away by your feelings and passions, not paying mind to anything else. The Ocala camp out whit my friends. The Canada summer camp. Who knows what else I've missed. They sit there, mocking me. They laugh in my face, and say “Look what a mess you've made, and you missed us because you decided to.”

My mom put me into homeschooling with the purpose of taking advantage of my advanced intellect, and raising me as the good person I should be. Flashback to 6th grade, the first weeks of our venture into homeschooling. I can remember it clearly. Waking up at 5 AM, to a fresh Religion lesson. That lasted long. Soon afterward, I was losing pace. Luckily, my mom wouldn't have it, and she pushed back into it. Passed all tests with flying colors. 7th grade. Not a bad start, but my initiative was gradually decreasing. New tests, same outcome. 8th grade. Sluggish start. First two quarters weren't so bad. During the 3rd Quarter, things took a turn for the worst. I started to put off things a lot. This went on to the point where I had to actually skip assignments in order to stay on track and finish my tests in time for the summer. Which didn't help much, and I ended up finishing in mid-to-late June.

This school year, I was determined to change things up, with the confidence that things would be different this time around. The first weeks, I worked hard to make sure nothing was missed, and that all was done well. Then came the move. Moving to Houston from Miami in October affected my schedule somewhat. I had to stop studying for the last week or two of September to pack up everything. An unexpected circumstance led us to make 2 trips to Houston in order to get everything there (yeah, thanks for that U-Haul). The first 2 weeks in Houston were spent unpacking, organizing, getting our rooms alright. By the 3rd week, most was done. Sure, there were still some things here and there, but nothing that couldn't be finished slowly afterwards.

I spent the rest of the month literally playing Xbox, Wii U, and watching TV. When November started, my mom started nudging me to get back into my regular schedule. By then, I was deep into the rhythm of laziness, and didn't feel like it. By the time Thanksgiving came around, I was still avoiding my studies. When December started, the worries really began for me (my mom had already started worrying weeks before). I came to realize how much time I had lost, and this, as unfortunate as it may seem, had an adverse effect on me. It seemed like a daunting task to make up for all that. I knew that the more time I waited, the more problems I would have. But I let myself be convinced that it was no use at that point, that, try as I might, I would not make it this time, that this time, I had most definitely lost. With that in mind, I kept being lazy! (I know NONE of this follows logic IN ANY FORM, but that's what actually happened! I feel so dumb now…)

Now, it's late January, and, in desperation, I made a post in the Life Advice section (link at the bottom, for the curious), asking how in Equestria am I supposed to save my year, because the rest of my high school, and even my chances of going to college are banking on me not EVER missing a year, and I don't want to risk that (My brain is asking me why I didn't think of that before I got into this mess, and he's got a point). So, time to devise a game plan.

I have 8 subjects, consisting of 6 core classes (1 credit each), and 2 electives (½ credit each). With this in mind, user sunstone on the forums suggested a weekly plan for 8 hours for 4 classes each day for 5 days each week. Between each 2 hour sprint (I'm calling each session “sprints”; thanks, 343 Industries!), I would take a 15 minute break, with the exception of the 30-45 minute lunch break between Sprints 2 and 3. Sunstone said that, more likely than not, I could finish by early summer. I looked over the logic, and it adds up.

Yesterday, after having to watch Mass on TV (because we couldn't physically go, because Dad's business trip), I went to my room, and lamented my “disgraces“ (I can get REALLY dramatic with myself in certain circumstances). Then, I thought “I should keep a blog about this, as a sort of record and motivator.” And I whipped out the mouse, keyboard, and ultra-picky ThinkPad (don't ask), I started writing. Rising From The Ashes will (hopefully) be a record of my epic quest to fix this year. I have never faced such a large task in my life, which only motivates me more to succeed.

Each day, I will (try to) write my thoughts about how the day progressed compared to the schedule. At the end of the week, I will record my progress per subject in the number of weeks done. Hopefully, later tomorrow, I will have the first regular entry.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, and I'd love to hear what you guys think about this idea.

Signing off for now,
Mario3D13