At some point over my long, uneventful (and unusually warm) winter break, I came upon an interesting revelation: As soon as the second quarter ended, I was exactly halfway through my “Uni career.”

"Does anyone have change for a five?”

"Can I have some of that food?"

"What did you get on the test?

These are three of the most popular questions at Uni. But after getting back the results of a major assessment — a test, paper, or project — the third question seems to become the most frequently asked. And that's not a good thing.

When it gets toward this time of year students are filled with joy that the holiday season is approaching: no school, no homework, and we actually get to sleep in for once! But it never fails that this feeling of joy is overcome by an overwhelming feeling of stress. In essence, finals week.

In elementary school, I was in the gifted program, and there was only one gifted class per grade. So, I basically had the same people in my class for four years.

Every year is different. Every year is a new challenge. When I first got into Uni, I expected every school year to be more difficult than the previous one. After subbie year, I was ready to embrace the challenges of “real high school.”