Every now and again, I find myself reflecting on a time when I was really stressed. It started on a Monday my senior year. I had three tests that I to take this week, and an essay due that Friday. Every night I spent studying and writing to get prepared for these upcoming tests. All that would run through my mind is that there is not enough time to get ready for these entire tests. And the whole week I just nervous and stressed for the tests and the essay. I knew this is not the right way to be feeling before a test. I then decided there had to be away to change how I felt. So the whole week I just wondered as I studied for the test what would be the best ways to deal with all this, so I could be relaxed for the tests. I finally thought and developed three ways to deal with stress and change the way that I feel. These incidents, as well as others, made me realize I needed to find some coping mechanisms for stress. My coping mechanisms for stress are three fold: fishing, watching T.V., hanging out with friends. For fishing I like to go to a tank, or lake. It usually starts with me heading home from school after a long day. First I make sure that I have bait to go fishing with. Then I get my fishing pole ready. Next I load everything in the truck and head out to where ever I want to fish at on that day. Once I get to the water I get everything setup for a relaxing time. After I cast my pole in the water I just sit back and wait. To most that might sound boring, but to me it’s amazing to just sit there and to hear nothing but the wind blow, or the birds chirp. It makes me real calm and allows me to just forget about my day and just relax. For watching TV I like to just go home and turn all the lights out, and lay on the couch. Then I grab the remote and turn the TV on. Usually I spend the first minutes flipping through channels trying to find something to watch. Hoping that I will find one of my favorite shows on or even a good movie