the students really enjoyed the substitute, he was quite entertaining and he told cool stories of how he used to be a special-ed teacher and also worked in as an limousine chauffeur. the students in my pre-calc class all interact well with each other and their really quiet and diligent and it’s a great working environment. everyone is quite independent and learns things, but we all share our ideas collaboratively. andrew is jealous of dave and me (since we are both in physics honors now and he wants to be there) b/c in his former school at texas and toms river, when he transferred they wouldn’t allow him to skip environmental science, even when he tried to double up on sciences, somehow his schedule got mixed up and he ended having to take advanced math instead. i am taking ap biology senior year while andrew will be in physics honors. he’s annoyed that i am ahead of him in science and dave is helping him. but my lunch buddy and my track mates are great, they are quite laid back and fun to be around and they help me a lot with school. i have been practicing the buddhist value of non-attachment and just letting life flow and it’s been working quite well, i’ve been just appreciating just seeing the sun on my face and feeling the wind on my hair. i realize that it doesn’t matter where i go or who i become friends with, i’ll always have the angels and buddha around me and i feel more at peace. my special friend still looks out for me and so do i for him, but we’re fine not establishing a relationship, we’re just happy to spend time with each other and laugh at the beauty of life. when other people are mad or yelling or criticizing, i take a breath and imagine my breath as a golden halo surrounding me and imagine that i’m drawing in divine light as it forms a positive bubble of warmth and love around me. there are times when my special friend worries that i may be losing myself in math and science or becoming irritated over english and history and he will tell his friends that he will be gone for a while to see if i’m okay. i realize that that sometimes the routes you take aren’t always the ones your parents and authority figures might want you to take, but you should always follow the path that makes you happiest. i am going to become a molecular biologist and study how cells work and figure different vaccines to help against diseases and also experiment with stem cells for brain cancer. i will also go and take some courses in field biology and spend time in nature and practice reiki for my spiritual self. my parents don’t like my spiritual path and they think being a medical scientist is too difficult, but it’s something i find quite interesting. a lot of my teachers are encouraging me to go into neuroscience since i love learning about brainwaves and the functions of the nervous system.