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Papers, textbooks, notebooks, my seventh-grade diary, an AP English book, and a half-eaten bag of Swedish fish. These are some of the things that are cluttering my bed at the moment. Each is there for a specific reason, and holds a relation to my current frazzled mental state. How do I sleep at night between all these items? I have been lucky enough to learn how to weave in and out of paper messes, and somehow get a good night's sleep in the midst of, well, everything. However, while my sleep may not suffer, my head sure has.

The clutter around my bed and room reflects a helplessly cluttered mind. For the past two weeks, exams, deadlines, and commitments have swum around my brain and have each found a spot in mind.

Except for today. Today was my final, last ever, AP Test. This may explain the excessive amounts of notebook paper and textbooks that graze my hands at night. Cramming for these tests, I have been filling my head with information ranging from paramagnetism to monopolistic competition.

Unfortunately, I have a tendency to stray from my studies at times. Between reviewing solubility rules and theories of psychology, I was able to see (with much sadness) Alyson and then Danny Gokey getting kicked off "American Idol," while Joan Rivers (thank goodness!) won "Celebrity Apprentice."

Next week will be my final week of high school. Yes, that is it, no more AP tests, no more SAT subject tests (which, I believe are essentially one and the same, and are just Collegeboard's way of taking money out of vulnerable teenagers who must follow a strict regimen if they are ever to get into college), and no more scheduled, structured, school.

That is why my seventh-grade diary is lying on my bed. The Harry Potter notebook, clad with the Hogwarts seal was found deep within my drawers on a previous cleaning extravaganza.

I was very much intrigued at the chance of taking a glimpse at myself five years ago. Starting from slumber parties and summer vacations to China and India, I was able to keep the diary up, writing at least once a month till the end of seventh grade, concluding with: "P.S. My headgear isn't coming off for another five months! Agh!" Reading my diary not only showed me how much I've changed (my teeth are now relatively to moderately straight), but also how I haven't.

There is one entry in which I get hot-headed over playing a Dreamcast video game. While reading it, I had a sudden flashback to last week, when my brother beat me, again, in MarioKart on the Wii.

Then, there is the half-eaten bag of Swedish fish. The explanation for this specific item is not long-winded nor especially interesting. It is simply a great tasting candy that helps to keep you studying at 2 o'clock in the morning. But be warned, the bag is only half-eaten because eating any more at the moment would put my stomach in a very bad position.

My mind is hopelessly cluttered. Yet, in a good way. It is stocked full of information that will aide me in college classrooms, but also around the college campus and in that mystical far off place called "the real world." It is stocked full of memories from seventh grade about friends and ugly dental equipment. It is stocked full of video game tricks and short cuts and of Hong Kong amusement parks.

My mind will forever be a haven to memories and knowledge, but for now, if I am ever to move on and think freely, I must sort through papers, files, and textbooks, and clean up this bed.

Since writing this, Rohini Bhatia has graduated from Mt. Hebron High School.

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