It has been a couple of days and I am itching to write. Not that I have any profound thoughts but I want to make this a habit.Ergo this may be short but it will be and that is the important thing. Talking with students today about attitude and study habits. Some of my brightest students have no sense of time usage. Until now they could read and produce in no time at all but a language is different; one has to study. I guess it resonates with me because I never had to study until I began a formal study of Spanish and got beyond algebra 1. These classes taught how to manage time, what to study, when and how to ask the questions to get the answers to help me. Languages once I began to recognize patterns became easier. Higher math was and still is a puzzle to me; but struggling through math taught me to work until I got it and somehow it led me to believe that a and b will always be c. Life is a series of choices and those we make ,make us what we are. Action a + choice b usually ends up with result C. Yet Life like math has variables. Making bad a choices may stop when a person sees the light, another person explains the pattern and its result, or something major happens to make you change. Maturity comes from realizing which of our choices is good or bad and that often our choices affect others who care for us. Maturity is also making choices that are less fun in the present because in the long run it is the better choice. Going to work when you rather sleep in helps you keep a job. Studying the material and not just skimming so you can pass the test and the class.Some facts of life are just that facts that one must do to have the better choices in the future. In my college classes there are many students who start a class only to fail it due to absences or lack of assignments being done. Maturity is also not whining. The English call it whinging.I love the sound of that word,as it sounds like the vocal tone of one who is doing it. The world is not all about you and your problems real or perceived. Honestly seek answers; do not make excuses and the help you need will be there. Whining, complaining, explaining why your life is not good soon becomes a boring litany that gains no sympathy. Recently had one of these in class and soon no one listened or tried to help her because instead of listening her constant I can't do this or I am so ill due to this class caused everyone to become deaf to her statements. We are for the most part what our choices have made us. Thankfully most of mine have been good, and I am content with my identity and my life.