As for now, I feel as if quite a weight of stress has been lifted off of my shoulders. I had many things to accomplish once I started school here at The university of Texas and I am finally beginning to lighten the stress little by little as I achive the goals I need to. for instance, today, I needed to petition credit of hours which I earned off of the ap testing which I took in highschool. I attempted to do it off of my compuiter but for some reason, even though I typed the correct web site, I could not actually claim my hours. Thus I actually went to the Measures and Evaluations building which allowed me to finally claim and petition my scores. also, the week before school started, I was ecxperiencing stress due to the fact that the ethernet card I purchased for my computer had a cd which was burned and incompetent of following the demanded preocedures. at that time, one evening I finally cried because of the accumulated stress which had built up immensly. thankfully, right now I am a  much happier person both on the enterier and teh exterior. for example, I began to write to all of my friends back home as well as write to my penpal who lives in Cicago Ilinois. I am starting to miss all of my friends and my family. the voices of my loved family do not leave my head. instead, their words repeatedly play in my mind as they are right now. I remember things my brother said to me whether it was great advice, or even a comment which brought me down. many times I feel that I can trust my brothers opinion since he tells me anything I need to know extremely bluntly and straight out. all my female friends I know may try to beat around the bush by telling me a point. I do the same thing. I care for my friends and try to tell them everything in a very nice way. however, when it comes to my biological brother,  he is probably the most honest boy who has ever spolken to me. who has ever spoken to me. I miss him a lot. actually I probably would not have been so homesick had my roommate not convinced me how much more comfortable and relaxed I would be at home. last weekend, she went home to visit her family and friends. when she came back, she told me that she was looking forward for the next weekend so she could go home and sleep in her own room once again. wow, how could I not imagine how nice it would be for me to go home as well and see all my old friends again. I really miss them. in addition, I miss my friends which go to different schools. I keep pictures of them to reminfd me of the friendship they shared with me. it is almost as if they are close in a way, but, not really. my mom on the other hand may just miss me quite a bit. I am looking forward to seeing her since she is in california visiting my precious grandmother right now. I'm very close to my mom and that is why I believe that my leaving may affect her and me. we are like best friends who tell each other anything in our lives. she cares for me and I hope that whatever I choose to do with my life I can impress her. however I would never do anything simply because of the reason that only she wants it of me. in fact she trusts me well enough to know that I will be able to grow up to be an independent person with great values, goals, and striving ambitions. my mother also helps in relieving my endless stress. just knowing that I can count on both my parents aids me in relaxing and doing the best that I can.