Countdown

[TinyDinos]

522 days left!

[Monsoon]

3 hours ago, TinyDinos said:

522 days left!

Hey there! How's it going? The countdown is intriguing! What are you counting down to? 

[TinyDinos]

1 hour ago, Monsoon said:

Hey there! How's it going? The countdown is intriguing! What are you counting down to? 

My 18th birthday/adulthood. Big deal. I’ve been stressing out over it so seeing how many days are left is helping me calm down and put things in perspective. :)

[Monsoon]

Hey there,

Ah okay, thanks for letting me know. I just wanted to check :) 

[TinyDinos]

521

[TinyDinos]

520. Crawling through the days slowly :(

I slept in again. I had a lot of nightmares yesterday so I didn’t sleep very well during the night.

[Monsoon]

1 hour ago, TinyDinos said:

520. Crawling through the days slowly :(

I slept in again. I had a lot of nightmares yesterday so I didn’t sleep very well during the night.

Hey there,

Sorry to hear about the nightmares. It's horrible having a bad night's sleep, isn't it? How have you been today?

[TinyDinos]

58 minutes ago, Monsoon said:

Hey there,

Sorry to hear about the nightmares. It's horrible having a bad night's sleep, isn't it? How have you been today?

Yeah it is. I’m doing okay. Mostly tired. I’m drained from a long weekend of socializing, so I am taking a recharge day with my sisters. Thanks for asking  

[TinyDinos]

519.
 

More sleeplessness. I’m super sluggish and slow today. My students rescheduled for Saturday though so I don’t have work today at least. I’m gonna keep reading my books.

[Monsoon]

Hey there,

Thanks for keeping us updated. I'm glad to hear that you don't have work today, so I hope you can get some good rest. Can I ask, what do you do as a job?

[TinyDinos]

2 hours ago, Monsoon said:

Hey there,

Thanks for keeping us updated. I'm glad to hear that you don't have work today, so I hope you can get some good rest. Can I ask, what do you do as a job?

Yeah sure. I teach music lessons, the kids I would’ve taught today do guitar and ukulele lessons.

[TinyDinos]

518. 
 

not much sleep yesterday either. I’m gonna drink some coffee to help. 
also today is Annabeth Chase’s birthday and I’m happy about that. She is one of my favorite fictional characters ever and I relate to her a bunch so happy b-day  

[Aurora]

17 hours ago, TinyDinos said:

518. 
 

not much sleep yesterday either. I’m gonna drink some coffee to help. 
also today is Annabeth Chase’s birthday and I’m happy about that. She is one of my favorite fictional characters ever and I relate to her a bunch so happy b-day  

Happy Birthday to Annabeth . It's nice when we find someone we can relate to. I feel like it helps us to realise that we are not alone and other's are going through similar experiences to us. Even if it's a  fictional character - it shows that there is someone else like this out there, otherwise the author wouldn't have been able to describe them so well. 

I noticed that you mentioned before that you are counting down to your birthday and that it's a big deal. Do you want to tell us more about that? Don't feel you have to - only if you feel comfortable to. 

[TinyDinos]

7 hours ago, Aurora said:

Happy Birthday to Annabeth . It's nice when we find someone we can relate to. I feel like it helps us to realise that we are not alone and other's are going through similar experiences to us. Even if it's a  fictional character - it shows that there is someone else like this out there, otherwise the author wouldn't have been able to describe them so well. 

I noticed that you mentioned before that you are counting down to your birthday and that it's a big deal. Do you want to tell us more about that? Don't feel you have to - only if you feel comfortable to. 

517

i agree 100%. Rick Riordan is an absolutely brilliant author and I appreciate his accurate representation and authenticity in his writing immensely. I am counting down to specifically my 18th birthday. I live in the US so I’ll legally be an adult at that age. I’ve been having a really hard time with coming to grips with that bit of information, and having a lot of anxiety with the whole topic of growing up in general, and seeing how many days I have until I have to face that reality has helped a lot. It’s easier to look at it as 517 days vs 1.5 years if that makes sense. 

still had trouble sleeping and staying asleep yesterday night. Frustrating, but I have coffee so I’ll be okay  

I took care of my dogs and worked this morning though so i feel proud of myself :)

Edited July 13, 2023 by TinyDinos

[Monsoon]

2 hours ago, TinyDinos said:

517

i agree 100%. Rick Riordan is an absolutely brilliant author and I appreciate his accurate representation and authenticity in his writing immensely. I am counting down to specifically my 18th birthday. I live in the US so I’ll legally be an adult at that age. I’ve been having a really hard time with coming to grips with that bit of information, and having a lot of anxiety with the whole topic of growing up in general, and seeing how many days I have until I have to face that reality has helped a lot. It’s easier to look at it as 517 days vs 1.5 years if that makes sense. 

still had trouble sleeping and staying asleep yesterday night. Frustrating, but I have coffee so I’ll be okay  

I took care of my dogs and worked this morning though so i feel proud of myself :)

Hey there,

Thank you for telling us about the anxiety you have around growing up. I'm wondering, can you tell us more about that anxiety? What is it about growing up that is making you feel that way?

Also, that's lovely that you feel proud of yourself for taking care of the dogs and working :). I'm curious to know, what else makes you feel proud of yourself? 

[TinyDinos]

2 hours ago, Monsoon said:

Hey there,

Thank you for telling us about the anxiety you have around growing up. I'm wondering, can you tell us more about that anxiety? What is it about growing up that is making you feel that way?

Also, that's lovely that you feel proud of yourself for taking care of the dogs and working :). I'm curious to know, what else makes you feel proud of yourself? 

I think the thought of being fully independent scares me. I’ve already had a lot of grown up experiences and in a lot of ways I think I’m much more mature than my peers because of it. But I’ve also been sheltered from a lot of things and I’m scared to be alone so suddenly and have to figure everything out when I can barely talk to my peers. Most days it’s all I can do to just get out of bed in the morning, and simple tasks feel like mountains to me as it is. When I’m by myself and I have to shoulder work responsibilities and financial responsibilities I won’t be able to keep up. I can barely take care of myself as is with my parents’ help. I worry about independence and adulthood because of that. And to top it all off I don’t know what I want to do with my life and the things I have interest in don’t seem realistic to pursue as a career path. Then I get in my head and it’s just like “oh yeah, all of this bad stuff’s gonna happen, and by the way it’s happening less than two years from now. Good luck “ I can’t handle it.

I feel proud of myself with my art if it turns out the way I envision it to go. And I guess I’m proud of my academic achievements too, but I’m more worried about school nowadays then proud. I’m not proud of myself very often too be honest.

[Aurora]

9 hours ago, TinyDinos said:

I think the thought of being fully independent scares me. I’ve already had a lot of grown up experiences and in a lot of ways I think I’m much more mature than my peers because of it. But I’ve also been sheltered from a lot of things and I’m scared to be alone so suddenly and have to figure everything out when I can barely talk to my peers. Most days it’s all I can do to just get out of bed in the morning, and simple tasks feel like mountains to me as it is. When I’m by myself and I have to shoulder work responsibilities and financial responsibilities I won’t be able to keep up. I can barely take care of myself as is with my parents’ help. I worry about independence and adulthood because of that. And to top it all off I don’t know what I want to do with my life and the things I have interest in don’t seem realistic to pursue as a career path. Then I get in my head and it’s just like “oh yeah, all of this bad stuff’s gonna happen, and by the way it’s happening less than two years from now. Good luck “ I can’t handle it.

I feel proud of myself with my art if it turns out the way I envision it to go. And I guess I’m proud of my academic achievements too, but I’m more worried about school nowadays then proud. I’m not proud of myself very often too be honest.

Hi there, thank you for sharing that with us. I can understand why the thought of being fully independent scares you. It sounds like you are thinking about the full picture straight away and I'm wondering if it would be helpful to break it down into smaller steps. I find by breaking things down into smaller steps and focusing on each step at a time can feel less overwhelming sometimes. What do you think? You might also find it helpful to remind yourself that gaining full independence is usually a gradual process and we're not usually expected to be fully independent from one day to another. I'm guessing when you turn 18 you'll probably still be living at home. Is that right? Is there anything at all that you think will be different the day you turn 18. And if so, what will that be? Also, can you think of any positives of having more independence? 

It's nice to hear that you feel proud of yourself with your art. I'm really not very artistic at all and I'm always impressed when I see other people's drawings, paintings, sculptures etc. I can remember you mentioning your academic achievements before and it sounds like you have a lot to be proud of there. I can also remember you posting some of the brilliant poems you have written on here before and you strike me as someone who has many talents - although I am not sure you can see this yourself. Is that right? I notice that you mentioned that you're not proud of yourself very often. Have you ever tried keeping a personal achievement diary? If not, do you think you might want to try this? I can tell you a bit more about it if you like? 

[TinyDinos]

5 hours ago, Aurora said:

Hi there, thank you for sharing that with us. I can understand why the thought of being fully independent scares you. It sounds like you are thinking about the full picture straight away and I'm wondering if it would be helpful to break it down into smaller steps. I find by breaking things down into smaller steps and focusing on each step at a time can feel less overwhelming sometimes. What do you think? You might also find it helpful to remind yourself that gaining full independence is usually a gradual process and we're not usually expected to be fully independent from one day to another. I'm guessing when you turn 18 you'll probably still be living at home. Is that right? Is there anything at all that you think will be different the day you turn 18. And if so, what will that be? Also, can you think of any positives of having more independence? 

It's nice to hear that you feel proud of yourself with your art. I'm really not very artistic at all and I'm always impressed when I see other people's drawings, paintings, sculptures etc. I can remember you mentioning your academic achievements before and it sounds like you have a lot to be proud of there. I can also remember you posting some of the brilliant poems you have written on here before and you strike me as someone who has many talents - although I am not sure you can see this yourself. Is that right? I notice that you mentioned that you're not proud of yourself very often. Have you ever tried keeping a personal achievement diary? If not, do you think you might want to try this? I can tell you a bit more about it if you like? 

Yeah that makes sense. I will be at home still, yes. I don’t plan on moving away for college and my family is going to have to move for the army around that time. I’m gonna take over the house and music school when that happens. I know my mom isn’t going to just expect me to have it down, but I’m still worried and I can’t help it. I’m just used to a “act your age” household and mentality and I think I’m stressing myself out more than I really should be, but alas here I am.

Thank you. I think that everyone is artistic, but they express it in different ways, mine happens to be one I can showcase visually. To be entirely honest I forgot about the poems lol. I haven’t had any inspiration for writing recently so it entirely slipped my mind. I don’t think about it as being multi talented vs doing things right the first time. I was always raised with the whole “our job as parents is to go to work, your job is to make sure the chores are done and you get good grades, that’s it, it’s not that hard” mentality and it has my perspective on the school stuff kinda skewed. My music stuff is always “she got it from her mom, her mom is a music teacher so that’s why, etc.” I’ve just always been around it and I’m good at it because my family was good at it, that’s just how it is. I’m passionate about it sure, but not necessarily talented to an extent that I want to showcase my “skills” if that makes sense. I’ve never tried keeping an achievement diary. It won’t hurt me to try so I’m open to hearing more about it 

[TinyDinos]

516

 

im running on 3.5 hours of sleep because 13 wanted to hang out yesterday and I felt bad about kicking her out if she didn’t do anything wrong. She woke me up again this morning because we’re going to the beach and I’m visibly exhausted and irritated and she reeled on me about how it isn’t her fault and I should’ve asked her to leave if I didn’t want her there, making it about how I just don’t want to hang out with her. I explain, no I just didn’t think it was fair to make her leave if she wasn’t misbehaving (I try to only kick them out of my room as a last resort), and mention how she knew I was tired last night because I kept dozing off and she kept waking me up saying that I was falling asleep and continuing with the conversation. She blames it all on me again, and then says “fine, I’ll just stop hanging out with you then. Bye” and storms out of my room. On one hand I’m upset and want to apologize because she’s literally my only friend left, but on the other hand, I don’t know what exactly I did wrong or what to do differently. If I told her to leave she’d accuse me of wasting her time, if I don’t ask her to leave then I just don’t want to hang out with her and it’s my fault that I don’t get sleep. I don’t know what to do.

Edited July 14, 2023 by TinyDinos
Typo

[TinyDinos]

515

Despite my lack of sleep, I had a great day yesterday. I went to the beach with my family and some family friends and just had a wonderful, relaxing day. I got to boogie board and bodysurf and it was amazing. I love going to the beach. I also got really sunburnt so my body hurts but it’s okay. I have no complaints over yesterday, and I can’t wait to go to the beach again. I love it there so much, especially the beaches in SoCal, I swear they’re magical.

I slept from 11pm to 6am and that’s the most sleep I’ve gotten in a while. No nightmares. I think it’s probably because of how exhausted I was from playing in the ocean all day. I didn’t have to be up until around 8:30 for work, but I woke up bc of the sunburn lol. I worked today already and now I’m just gonna rest.

[TinyDinos]

514

woke up around 20 mins ago. getting ready for church now  

[TinyDinos]

Today started out okay but my sister is putting me in an awful mood as usual. I’m so tired of nobody helping me with jobs that belong to everyone. It seems like I’m always the only one putting out effort. Then if I ask people to help all of a sudden I’m a jerk with an attitude issue. But god forbid I keep my mouth shut and suck it up and be miserable then everyone is all like “why didn’t you say anything????!!!?!?!!”. Majorly irritating

[Aurora]

On 7/14/2023 at 4:08 PM, TinyDinos said:

Yeah that makes sense. I will be at home still, yes. I don’t plan on moving away for college and my family is going to have to move for the army around that time. I’m gonna take over the house and music school when that happens. I know my mom isn’t going to just expect me to have it down, but I’m still worried and I can’t help it. I’m just used to a “act your age” household and mentality and I think I’m stressing myself out more than I really should be, but alas here I am.

Thank you. I think that everyone is artistic, but they express it in different ways, mine happens to be one I can showcase visually. To be entirely honest I forgot about the poems lol. I haven’t had any inspiration for writing recently so it entirely slipped my mind. I don’t think about it as being multi talented vs doing things right the first time. I was always raised with the whole “our job as parents is to go to work, your job is to make sure the chores are done and you get good grades, that’s it, it’s not that hard” mentality and it has my perspective on the school stuff kinda skewed. My music stuff is always “she got it from her mom, her mom is a music teacher so that’s why, etc.” I’ve just always been around it and I’m good at it because my family was good at it, that’s just how it is. I’m passionate about it sure, but not necessarily talented to an extent that I want to showcase my “skills” if that makes sense. I’ve never tried keeping an achievement diary. It won’t hurt me to try so I’m open to hearing more about it 

Hi there,

I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I'm not online over the weekend.

It sounds like you do have to take on a lot of responsibility when you turn 18. Am I understanding you correctly - around the time you turn 18, your family will have to move but you will stay where you are and take over your mom's music school. Is that right? Have you tried talking to your mom about some of the worries you are having? She might not be aware that this is already on your mind and that you are feeling stressed about it. Maybe you can come up with a plan together, which might help you to feel less stressed about the future. Do you think that might work?

A personal achievement diary is a journal where you write down one (or more) things you achieved, you're proud of or that you felt went well that day. It doesn't have to be anything big eg it could be something like you did your chores that day or you caught the bus on time or you were a good listener to your sister. We often notice all the things we think we didn't do well or didn't handle well and we tend to forget about all the positive things we're already doing. Keeping a journal can help us to focus more on the things we are doing well and the things we're achieving already. Some people find that it helps build their confidence and it can be really nice to have something like this to look through when we are feeling low. If you would like to give it a go, you can use it however works best for you. Some like to have a little note book on them or use a phone App so they can note down any achievements as soon as  they notice them, whereas others prefer to do it at a certain time of day eg in the evenings before they go to bed. How does that sound? 

[Aurora]

14 hours ago, TinyDinos said:

Today started out okay but my sister is putting me in an awful mood as usual. I’m so tired of nobody helping me with jobs that belong to everyone. It seems like I’m always the only one putting out effort. Then if I ask people to help all of a sudden I’m a jerk with an attitude issue. But god forbid I keep my mouth shut and suck it up and be miserable then everyone is all like “why didn’t you say anything????!!!?!?!!”. Majorly irritating

That does sound frustrating!! Do you mind telling me a bit more about how it works with chores in your house? Doe everyone have their own chores or do you and your sisters have chores together? Is there anyway you could just do your bit and then leave everything else to your sisters, without reminding them to do it? It might be more effective if your mom told them what they needed to do. What do you think?

[Aurora]

On 7/15/2023 at 5:49 PM, TinyDinos said:

515

Despite my lack of sleep, I had a great day yesterday. I went to the beach with my family and some family friends and just had a wonderful, relaxing day. I got to boogie board and bodysurf and it was amazing. I love going to the beach. I also got really sunburnt so my body hurts but it’s okay. I have no complaints over yesterday, and I can’t wait to go to the beach again. I love it there so much, especially the beaches in SoCal, I swear they’re magical.

I slept from 11pm to 6am and that’s the most sleep I’ve gotten in a while. No nightmares. I think it’s probably because of how exhausted I was from playing in the ocean all day. I didn’t have to be up until around 8:30 for work, but I woke up bc of the sunburn lol. I worked today already and now I’m just gonna rest.

That sounds really, really lovely!! How often do you get to go to the beach?