As the last days of school are finally coming around, I am finding it harder and harder to concentrate on my schoolwork. Actually I think a lot of my classmates and I have been on summer vacation since Christmas break.

When I return from a break for spring like the one we just had, it seems like the work I'm returning to is worse than it was when I left. After a week of peaceful, relaxing, homework and stress-free time, we are suddenly thrown right back into the world of tests, quizzes and that "wonderful" thing we call PowerPoint.

It seems like teachers are trying to fit everything they haven't taught us all year into a few short days. My little brain just can't take it anymore. I find myself dreaming about the huge 10-page creative writing paper I have due, or how I am going to learn how to do matrixes in trig (sounds fun but trust me it's nothing like the movie). Then, at the end of the quarter when my brain is officially on "summer mode," I'm forced to regurgitate every little bit of information I have been taught in the last nine months onto a bubble sheet the size of Texas.

I hate finals! I wish the person who thought it would be fun to torture students on their last three days of school would be caught and tortured in cruel and unusual ways, like making them pick all the rocks out of the triple jump sand pit at Notre Dame!

But I, along with all my friends, will just muddle through these last few hectic days. Because after the pain comes the pleasure and summer is almost here!

Amber Karnes is a student at Notre Dame Regional High School.