Surviving middle school

Well, I'm in eighth grade and have decided to share my tips on how to deal with drama, juggling homework and friends, how to pass your classes, and much more. Today I'm going to give my tips on how to stay awake during class.

You know those days where your teacher is extremely boring and class is absolutely unbearable? All you wanna do is lay your head down and sleep, but alas your eyelids are stubborn and they droop. Well, here's my 3 tips on how to fight the sleep!

1. Bring a bottle of water. Put it in the freezer the night before if you usually get tired later in the day so that it will be cold during later hours of class. If you only get tired in the morning, just put it in the fridge.

2. Stretch. Stretching will make your body feel better and will make you less irratated and able to fight of sleep.

3. Stand up. I'm not saying for the whole class period, but standing up to fix your shirt or getting a tissue will wake you up because you won't just be sitting there all tired.

I will be posting more tips and whatnot on middle school soon! Stay tuned(:

Have you ever lost someone?

Hi, I'm Sierra. Yesterday night my grandfather passed away last night. He was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. He went through a couple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. His lungs were beginning to fail him. The doctors discovered soon after that he has blood clots. For those who don't know, blood clots are very deadly. They put him on blood thinners but they didn't work. This summer, he went to the hospital because he couldn't breath. They managed to repair him a little, but be still had to use oxygen tanks at home and was unable to walk around hardly at all. My grandmother even had to bathe him. This past weekend he returned to the hospital from lack of breath. The doctors pretty much told him that he wasn't going to get better but their goal was to keep him from getting worse. When he was eating he had a sort of seizure like attack. His heart rate sped up and his throat closed up. He wasn't able to eat. This happened three more times over the course of the next few days. They gave him the option of being on a feeding tube or taking the morphine drip. The morphine drip would cause him to feel no pain and would also slow his breathe and make it even more difficult for him to breath. They estimated he had one to two days left to live. He was able to eat occasionally and was coherant and talking. The nurse said the doctors tend to estimate a patients time left with the events at the moment. The hospital he was at was a veterans hospital and all the doctors are in training. The nurses, though, are certified nurses. I will admit, it did worry me that they weren't certified doctors. The doctor offered him another type of medicine, ativan, to go along with the morphine. They informed him that it would calm him but it would shorten his life as it would relax his muscles and cause his breathing to become more difficult. I had already said my goodbyes as my mother didn't want me in the room when he passed. I had just gotten home and lied down when my mother called my father and I heard him say, 'I can't understand you, honey.' He informed my sister and I that my grandpa had passed on. He had woken up saying he had to urinate and he was very agitated. The doctor said she thinks it was probably a blood clot that broke off because people usuallt become irritated during that time. My mom said he was ready to die and that when the doctor asked if he wanted ativan and his words were 'bring it on'. Those were pretty much his last words. My grandma sat with him holding his hand and comforting him. My mother held his other hand as his breath slowed until he was taking about one breath a minute. He eventually stopped breathing and passed away. My father, sister, brother in law, and nephew headed up to the hospital to be with my mother and grandmother. We comforted them and were there until two a.m. That was pretty much my story, I felt like I needed to share it. <3

Thank you for reading, share you story in the comment section. Or if you have a video post the link! Goodbye, I'm going to get some sleep.