As the school year rears its angry, demanding head once again, I just wanna say that I feel you. To all the school kids, the college kids and the grad students there will soon be an extreme inundation of essays, speeches, homework, exams and grades. Along with them, there will be procrastination, stress, confusion and general dismay. School is hard and motivating one's self is hard too, but hopefully, this will make it a little bit easier.

This Week's Quote:

When you've got an essay to finish, a club meeting to run, a speech to give, and another club meeting to run it's easy to think you just can't go on any longer. Even with a schedule half as busy as this, students get worn out fast.

Between trying to keep up with college level classes, attend all the festivities on campus and sleep enough to do it all over again, it's all too easy to pick the simple way out and sell yourself short.

Many a young adult has turned in a half-assed essay that they wrote at 5:00 in the morning. Other's have turned in a half-assed essay that they wrote 3 days ago, but just stopped caring about

This quote says, "Don't half ass it." This quote says, "You're capable of more."

Not only is this a brief but heartwarming pep talk, it's also a gentle reminder of what's really important and that's doing work that you're genuinely proud of.

This school year isn't about your parents, it isn't about your teachers, it's about you. It's about getting out there every day and working your butt off until you can look in the mirror, look at what you've done, and think "I did that and I'm damned proud about it."

It isn't always easy, impressing yourself. You'll have to focus, set goals and say no to some of the things that won't help you get there. You'll have to give up a few nights out to work on your term paper and plan to sleep a little earlier so you can wake up and actually read. You'll have to put yourself out there, try new things, strategize and most importantly work -- hard. But you'll come to realize first hand that nothing feels as good as knowing in your heart of hearts that you did your best.

That way, even when you don't get the grade you wanted, you know you tried and you know you can try again. And the thrill becomes less about working for the grade and more about working for the pride, for putting out good work so at the end of the day you can stop and breathe and smile because you did it.

That's when the parties, the trips to the beach, the late nights are worth it. When you can celebrate the thing you worked so hard for. That's what I wish for you all and myself this semester, so let's go make it happen.

Pinterest has got a lot of gold, and you can check out my last Pinterest meditation here.