May will be the last month of my high school career, and I can’t wait to finally graduate and go off to college at Washington University in St. Louis.

To me, my life has never been very exciting. All of it mostly consists of doing homework, hanging out with friends, playing chess, and sleeping.

The room is silent, and only the occasional sounds of buttons being pressed can be heard.
I stare intently at my position, figuring out whether to move the knight, rook, or queen.

On Monday, we honored the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today, we celebrate, honor, and accept Barack Obama as our new president.

One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. What I like most about Thanksgiving is the different ways it can be celebrated.

“Math is boring.”

I always wondered why I’ve never had a very strong interest in math. After all, my dad is a mathematician, and I’ve heard that chess players are supposed to have “good math minds.” In addition, I wanted to try and enjoy math more during my junior year when I took calculus, but it didn’t help.

When you were a kid, you probably believed Santa Claus existed and didn’t know it was actually your parents giving you the presents. If you’ve ever looked back to the past at all the fun things you did as a child, you get a feeling of happiness and a sense that you misunderstood a lot of things.

Every year, more than one million people take the Advanced Placement tests. These exams test students’ overall knowledge on a particular subject, and many schools offer classes to help prepare them for the exam.

When a student comes home from school, a parent might ask: "Hey, how was school today? What grade did you get on your test, how'd you do on it?"

VIDEO: How to take someone's wallet, just by asking

Junior year is awfully busy.

You have to start thinking about colleges and prepare for standardized tests: PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT II subjects, and AP tests. If this doesn’t seem a lot already, think about the activities you participate in and all the work you have to do for school.

This summer, the XXIX Olympiad will be held in Beijing from Aug. 8 to 24.

Like many other nations in the world, American schools help prepare students for the future by teaching them math, English, science, history, art, foreign language, and physical education.

That's a good variety of subjects, but there's something that seems missing, something to get away from the often stifling formality of academics.

Addiction is something that cannot be avoided. It can range from drugs to playing video games to chatting on AIM to shopping to reading books, but almost everyone is addicted to something.

The flu has hit Uni quite hard this year. When you’re walking down the hallway or learning in class, there’s always someone coughing or blowing their nose.

According to the main office, 37 people were absent yesterday, 12 today, and an average of 20 people a day have been out for the past week.

It is very difficult for things to go the way you want. Often times a little bit of luck is required. One day of bad luck can make a huge difference.