> > Personally, I feel lucky. I'm in a good environment with people like myself, who actually have a clue. Compititions for "Who can drive the fastest and not get killed" that I've heard occur in some other schools in the city are replaced with compitions like "Who can get the best essay written in the least amount of time" at mine. In fact, our school only has one person who smokes in it - and he's a teacher. With an entire school that actually values education, I don't feel out of the crowd like you might. Of course, a lot of people from other schools think that ours is weird, but they're entitled to their opinions. After all, it can be fun when you meet some of these people from that other school (I'll keep the school name unknown in order not to offend anyone from it that might read this post) and they say something like "You're from OSA? And you actually DO your homework? And you don't smoke? Jeez, man, you've got no life!" and then I look them in the eye and say something like "At least I'll have one 10 years from now."
> >
> > -Ka"15 and loving it"z!
>
> I hope you are able to keep that outlook as you continue through tour teens. When i was 15 i had the same ideas. i was never going to drink or smoke or do drugs, and my friends didn't care, even thought they all did. they still thought i was cool. but somehow, over the course of that year, i managed to do all of those things i said i wouldn't.
>
> I think this both hindered me and helped me though. even before all that, i wasn't doing well in school. i never did homework. i would do fine on the tests, but still only barely pass my classes. My family life was also very bad...the typical dysfunctional family.
>
> Eventually my abuses lead to a climax where i ran away from home. the events that transpired after that are the redeeming factor. i won't go into detail, but i got cleaned up, my relationship with my mom improved, i graduated high school and began my life over.
>
> I just hope that you, and others, can escape what i had to go through to get to that place.
>
> Catti"26 now with a good job, never thought i'd see the day :)"brie

You're also a pretty good writer, but that first person singular pronoun should be capitalized.
(Sorry, old has-been teachers like me can't resist things like that.) Truthfully, at first, I thought you might be my daughter-in-law, but she's 30. She overcame some of the same problems that you had. She married well. (my son --What can I say!) Then she quit smoking, got a high school GED, lost 100 pounds, learned to drive, got a new hair do, and learned to like herself. She's very much like you.
She doesn't capitalize that 'i' either.
Howard