This is just a post to get everything off of my chest.

I understand things are tough - sometimes unbearable - for all of us. The world has problems, and maybe it's just human nature to be greedy and destructive. The world sometimes doesn't seem fair at all.

This summer started off with a week where I was able to relax and spend some time with my Forest friends. The next week was my mom's first day of summer, which began with her being bitten by a rottweiler. Her wound has healed greatly since that day, but she will have teeth scars on her arm for the rest of her life because of it. Since that day everything has gone downhill.

My dad has been working at the post office for 47 and a half years. He took his 2 week vacation because he hasn't been feeling the best, and now we know what is going on. He has cancer again - he had it a long time ago when I was still in elementary school. So dad retired at the beginning of this month. He is going through a 2nd wave of chemotherapy now, and will have surgery afterward. While that's been going on, my mom is going through colonoscopy. She will be in the hospital tomorrow through thursday or friday with her surgery.

During all of this, my 1990 Mazda 626 had been acting up. We took it to the shop and found out the transmission blew out on it, and would cost around $2,000 to fix. I was lucky my brother found a new car for me - a 1998 Mercury Mountaineer for $4,000. So I am paying back someone who loaned us the money for it.

Before summer ended for us, a small piece of the ceiling in my brother's room fell down. We discovered that the air conditioning vents were leaking, so we had to borrow $8,000 to get a new air conditioning unit and vents put in.

For me, every day I was off, I wanted to get away and relax at the beach, but while everything had gone on, it rained 90% of the time. Even as I type this, there is a tropical depression right over where i'm at. I'm about to get hit by heavy rain in the next hour.

So today I went back to college. My classes were fine, but when I bought my books, I spent $500...on two textbooks and two lab books. I just felt so horrible that my bookstore would be so greedy. I tried to think about what else I could do to save money, but everything just costs so much now. Even gas for me is $40 to fill up my tank.

Its just been a terrible summer. I've had so much on my mind that I've wanted to just get away from everything, but I have responsibilities to take care of, and college to finish.

I need not despair. The world may be falling apart around me, but when I lose hope, there is someone there who makes me smile. They'll always be there to help me calm down and enjoy life, even if things seem so bad.



Thank you, Quad. And thank you to everyone in this community. I don't know where I would be without all of you.

*Hugnuzzles his soft, whitebellied deer*

And look! Even the Forest is looking up now that Michael and Auriea have spoken out about the hex editing thing!