Thread: 17 and stressing...any words of wisdom

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im 17 yrs old and stressing out about halloween. The past 2-3 years iv taken over the family homehaunted house, it fun but very stressful. i go to school and play football for the school. well i mite not be playing anymore becuz i may be kicked off. iv been missing practice and focusing alot of my time on the haunt wich im very passionate about, i want to perfect it. and quite frankly i would take my haunted house over a varsity football game anyday and thats truly how i feel, this is my families 17th year of home haunting and gets better evry year but between school,football and haunting im stressing....any words of wisdom out there??

Az homehaunter don't stress. You are only 17 years old but it sounds as though you have a lot on your plate. However you do not need to take on all of the responsibility for your family's home haunt. Let your family know how you are feeling and ask your family, friends, neighbors, or teamates for help. You probably appear to have it all together so people don't offer to help. If you ask for help, I am sure you will get it.

Let your coach know why you have been missing practices. Let him know you feel torn by your responsibilites and feel an obligation to your family. However stress how important playing football is and brainstorm ways you can make up for missed practices. One idea is to use your home haunt to ask for donations for your varsity football team. Create a sign and place a jar out for donations. Invite your teamates, coaches, and cheerleaders over for support.

And remember halloween happens every year but your are only in High School for four years of your life. And your high school experience is almost over. You can always make a better haunt next year.... but once high school is gone it is gone. You don't want to look back when you are older and regret your decision to prioritize this year's haunt above all else.

My final words of advice are: purple is a hard color to read... you may want to change the color of your posts....

I hope things work out.. keep us posted.

I second what propmistress says, I commend your dedication to the haunt, but high school is way to fleeting, also, at 17, the responsibility of the haunt shouldn't fall squarely one you, it should, idealy, be a family affair. Best of luck!

Az, I'm in the exact same position that your in. Though I'm only 16. I took over the decorating for our house, and ya, it gets very stressful having to do the haunt, and do everything else a high schooler has to do. What I'v done is only worry about the haunt on the weekends. I spend the week getting homework done and all the other stuff I need to do, so that way I don't have any work over the weekend. Then during the day on the weekends, I spend my time on the haunt. Its worked for me, and I got finished last weekend except for some lighting and a few props that can only go up on Halloween. So try not to stress so much. I don't know how far along you are, but you have all of Saturday to get it done, so I wouldn't worry to much more.

Take it one day at a time and try to enjoy it as much as you can. Halloween will be there on the 31st waiting for you and even if you don't get everything that you had hoped to get done, it will still be awesome!

words of wisdom? how about: If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

From a father of football players and 3 kids:

• Concentrate on school work 1st
• Do you enjoy football? Keep playing, if not finish the season, I'm a firm believer in finish what you start
• There is always time after high school

Don't forget, you still have another year of HS and then college. So how much time over the next several years you can devote to this will be limited. The time after your schooling will be your best to come.

Just think what you can build with a Mechanical Engineering/ Computer minor degree. You could land a career doing what you love.

1. School
2. Sports
3. girls
4. halloween
5. LOLOLOL

-PB

PS don't use purple font!!!!!

AZ, don't put so much on yourself. Remember the reason you are doing it, is because it is fun and enjoyable. But School comes first, cause, wow man. you ARE NOT an English major, you need to take school seriously, and if you enjoy Football, that too. But don't think you're alone, I'd say just about all of us on here are getting kinda stressed out, It's crunch time! Anyways, Happy Haunting!

i agree with everyone here, not sure if i could say anything more... UHG, crunch time people!... deep breath......... let it out... good.. feel better now??? yeah me either!

to your haunt, and leave the rest. I have HUGE plans every year, then end up reducing down to a few key elements. Remember that your "audience" won't know about all the stuff you planned to do, but didn't get around to this year. I have a 6' long paper mache dragonfly in my basement that I didn't finish LAST year! No one misses it, because no one's ever seen it!

When I was your age, we had a very small haunt going on, so that's the best thing. Don't overburden yourself. Do what you can and it'll still be very appreciated by your neighbors and the kids.