Dear Shirley:

i believe that by the time you are reading this, you are done with two tests: the pre calc and the history test (two in one day? Incredible to me, too much, I think). Again, your long time friend is a great resource and you are a resource for him as well.

Your last sentence is very meaningful to me: “life isn’t about intelligence and competition, it’s about supporting people..”

We are not robots, meaning, as you know, we are not logic machines, we are emotional animals who happen to have logic in addition to emotions. This is why emotions always have to be taken into account. In fact, it is not logical to not give great importance to emotions! It doesn’t mean one should automatically react to whatever emotion comes up, often not.. but one should always pay attention to the emotion- what is the message in it and that message needs to be attended to.

So in the highly logical, competitive, scored-and-graded-intelligence environment that you describe, you will compete better if you practice paying attention to your emotions, deciphering the messages (as simple a message as: I need to take a break now!)

Till your next post, take care!

anita