Today I am slightly worried. I have an AP English meeting at lunch and the actual auditions Friday after school. I really hope I make it into AP so I am willing to try my best.

I have so much work to do today. I saw Ms. Scherrs nice and she is really pretty. I am so happy she got married.

Today during 3rd period, our class prepared for the trial that will take place next week. I am very prepared and hope I do very good. Although the school is coming to an end, I'm hoping this trial will boost my grade up from an B to an A.

Today has been successful so far. I finally finished my homework on time and I am willing to do whatever it takes to bring all my grades up to an A before the end of the semester. There is going to be a lot of challenges to come with this goal, but I am willing and determined.

Today is the day. My basketball game starts at 7:00 p.m. I'm really nervous! That must be a shocker because some people say that when I get on the court I don't look nervous. As I'm typing, my heart is beating a little too fast. If we win, we advance on, but if we lose thats the end of the season for us. Thats what I'm mostly afraid of. Losing. This is a lot coming from a girl who plays on a winning team. I sometimes put myself in someone else's shoes and I think to myself how they must feel to lose, but I cannot worry about that now. I need to focus on beating this team. I HAVE to. My teammates are like family to me. We share laughs and argue over the silliest things. Losing today would mean not playing with my family. I'm hoping for the best tonight since I heard a lot of people are coming to watch us today. Wish me luck because quite frankly, I'm going to need it.

A Small Step to A Long Journey.

If i were to describe my feelings today in one word, I would say I am pretty excited today. My basketball team mad it to playoffs and, we play our first game friday. Although this is good news, thinking about this brings back old memories, and I have to say thee memories are not the best. Last year was my freshman year and I was starting five on the girls varsity basketball team at my high school. I currently attend James Monroe High School as a sophomore. Last year, we made it to playoffs. We all worked so hard to get to where we were. We were literally shedding blood, sweat, and tears. We won all our playoff games and then finally made it to the championship. Long story short, we lost by six points. Some of my teammates were not that upset at all. They already had championship rings to show off from the year before. Personally, I was devastated. I wanted a ring. I thought that it was not fair. I started to cry while they were medaling us. While the newspaper crew was snapping pictures of the tears streaming down my face, I thought about how selfish my teammates had been, telling me that it didn't matter whether I had a ring or not. It did matter. To me. The funny thing was that these were seniors. "You have another two years to get another ring, Zenab. Don't cry." "Why are you crying, Zenab? Its not a big deal. We still made state." " Zenab, you shouldn't cry. My ring doesn't even fit me its way to big. Who cares?" The only comfort I received was from my older sister who was a junior at the time, and played on the same team. We made it to state but lost the first game by only one point. There was three seconds left on the clock and as it ticked, one of the girls from the other team dribbled up the floor, and made a half-court buzzer beater. The funny thing was I wasn't crying that game. The seniors were the ones crying this time. I was actually laughing as crazy as that sounds. I never did really get along with some of the seniors on my team at the time. They always made up stupid rules that only revolved around seniors. It was like a "senior only" segregation. I walked over to them and said, " Don't worry, you guys. Its not that big of a deal. There is always next year, for some of us..." Its so funny how life works sometimes. Karma to be exact. Now here I am a year later. I have gotten better over the year. Preparing myself for what is to come during playoffs. i have my two sisters at my side; Ayisat a senior and Aliyyat the incoming freshman. Its going to take a lot for us to make it to the championship, some of which I am not yet prepared for, but I am ready to face these challenges. Everyone's journey has to start somewhere. Mine starts friday.