The first thing you mentioned was getting a shit reportcard. Sometimes, school can be rough. i guess the first thing to ask yourself is why did you do so poorly on your reportcard? Did you not try your best, or do you have trouble understanding the material? If ou did not try your best, then you know you just need to commit yourself to ttrying harder. If you didnt understand the material, then i might make sense to talk to your teachers about getting extra help. It might also be helpful to look for a tutor. In addition, if you need help with specific questions on homework or in a subject, you can try posting in the School and Homework Connection forum here to get help. Also, try to rmember that when you are feeling bad, it definitly impacts your performance in school, so improving other parts of your life is an important thing to do as well. Also, a good reportcard is not one that has good grades, but one that reflect your best effort, and that is inportant too.

Being forced into a shit job is tough too. Having to do work that you hate will definitly contribute to misery in the job. Maybe you can talk to the person who is forcing you into this job about it? If it is your parents, as Sabrina suggested it could be, then i agree with her, you should try talking to them about it, chances are they want what is best for you. If it is due to financial reasons, then the thing to remember is that for now you must have the job, but after a while, you can save up money and try to move to a better job that you like more.

As for your Friends living far away, that is tough. One good thing to do is to try and keep in contact with them online through email, messangers, and things like Facebook. The other thing you can try to do is to try visiting them if it is possible on occaision. It is tough to deal with, but if you try to keep in touch, you guys can stay Friends.

As for your Best Friend, that is also tough. It isimportant to ask why this distance is occurring. Sometimes that just happens in Friendships, and if that is the case, then i would recommed talking to your Best Friend about how you feel. Chances are they feel the same way.

The other important thing to do if you can is to try and find new Friends if possible. They cannot replace your old ones, but they will give you someone to be with. Maybe the people at work are a good place to start looking or in your classes at school.

im sorry that you have been crying yourself to sleep this past week, but in a way it is good because it at least is allowing you to express your emotions.

As for the problems at home, may i ask what they are. Something that you can try doing is talking to your parents about how you feel at home and try working on it with them. You can also try talking to a school social worker when school starts up again. It is important that you tell your parents how you feel though because lots of times, parents do not even realize what they are doing. They do waht they thinkl is best for you. So sometimes you have to show them what is best for you. If they wont respond, please do not run away, because that will jst get you in mroe trouble and make your life worse. i have tried it, it doesnt turn out well. Just try to remember that you can leave soon.

If you ever need someone to talk to, you can always message me. i just wanted to leave you with one last thing. Someone wise once told me that, "Sometimes we must endure the worst of storms in order to see our rainbow at the end." i knwo it sounds cheesy, but its true, if you can endure this, you will find a better life for yourself down the road. i really hope things get better for you.

Posted at 11:51 pm on July 14, 2008

I know that this can be a really tough time for you right now and you are obviously feeling really down.  Try not to be so hard on yourself.  You have to understand that sometimes, life isn't going to go the way that you want it to and you just have to accept that.  Many people find it very difficult to accept the fact that life isn't fair and it never will be.  Everyone has problems and everyone goes through hard time in their lives.  What makes a strong person is not how hard they can get hit, but how hard they can get hit and keep going.  I know it might be hard but try and look at all of the positive things in your life right now.  Be appreciative of all the good things in your life instead of always focusing on the negatives.

In regards to your report card, I think it's really good that you care about school as much as you do.  You should feel proud of yourself because there aren't many people with aspirations to do well in school.  Everyone has a bad school year.  You sound like an intelligent person and maybe this just wasn't your year.  These types of things happen all of the time - try not to be so hard on yourself.  Remember, there is always time to improve your grades.  Don't give up yet.  Keep trying your best and I'm sure that you'll be rewarded.  Try and focus on the areas where you found it more difficult - that way, you can focus more on improving those areas of weakness.  

I'm going to assume that your parents are the ones who are forcing you to get a job.  I know how parents could be sometimes, especially when it comes to their children getting a job.  I don't know how old you are so I really don't know what to tell you about this.  There is no certain age where you should have a job.  I know that the legal age is 16 in Canada and I am pretty sure it's the same in most other parts of the world.  However, just because you're 16, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to get a job.  It is good to have a job because it teaches you time management, responsibility and money management.  However, it is not a necessity.

If you are really opposed to the idea of getting a job, then I suggest you really have a talk with your parents about it.  Remember, your parents mean well and only want what's best for you.  I know it is sometimes hard to see that, but you have to understand that they ultimately want what's best for you.  Give them a really good reason as to why you do not want a job.  However, if your reason is as simplistic as "I'm lazy" or "I don't want to work", then I highly doubt that they will even take you seriously.  Those are not good reasons as to why you are opposed to the idea of getting a job.  

Anyway, why are you so opposed to the idea of getting a job?  I mean, it can be really good for you - especially for teenagers.  I know it is work and no one likes to work, but there are a lot of benefits that come with getting a job.  Money is the most obvious benefit of getting a job.  However, there are many more benefits, some of which I mentioned earlier.  You learn time management skills, responsibility, money management and the experience that you gain from having a part-time job is great for your future.  However, it's really up to you.  Just remember to present a logical defense if you're going to approach your parents about this.

You mentioned that you live far away from your friends.  That is always a hard situation to be in given how important friends are to most teenagers.  Do you have any friends where you live now?  If you do, you can try hanging out with them for a little while.  If not, you can always make new friends in your area.  But, in regards to your other friends, there are other methods of communication that you can use instead of physically going out with them.  You can phone them, send them a letter, email them, text them, IM them - virtually anything.  As you can see, there are many additional ways that you can keep in touch with your friends even though they are far away from you.

Why is your best friend drifting further and further away from you?  Did something happen to cause this behaviour?  If so, I would suggest you talk to your friend about it.  Obviously your friend means a lot to you and you really care about what happens in regards to your friendship.  Don't give up.  Try and talk to your friend and see if there is any way to solve the problem.  Be totally open and honest about your feelings and tell your friend exactly what is on your mind.  Remember, when it comes to best friends, they can be really understanding.  If this person was really your best friend then they would be open to the idea of trying to talk about things to help solve the issue.  Good luck.

I know problems at home can be rather difficult but you really have to try and not let it bother you.  You sound like a really good person.  As you mentioned, you don't smoke, do drugs or drink alcohol.  You should feel very proud of yourself for being such a good person.  Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes life is going to throw you a curve ball and there is nothing that you can do about it.  I know it seems like everything in your life is falling apart right now but you have to try and look at the situation from an optimistic point of view.  Try to focus on the good things in your life instead of always focusing on the negative.  The negative things in your life will eventually get better.  

I know that you may feel that you've hit rock bottom and that may be so.  However, look at the situation from this point of view:  If you've hit rock bottom, then there is no way to go but up.  As you can see, things will only get better from here.  You just have to stay positive and I can guarantee you that things will eventually get better.  Please don't run away.  That will not solve anything.  I doubt that you have the finances nor the street smarts that you need to pull something like this off.  I mean, think of all of the things that can go wrong.  Trust me, don't run away - it's really not worth it.  Just be strong and hang in there.  I'm sure things will get better from here.

I hope I've helped.  If you feel that you need to discuss this further, feel free to message me.
Good luck and keep your chin up.

~ Sabrina


Posted at 11:11 am on July 10, 2008